AN: WOOT! I'm on a roll. Well actually I typed up nearly 10,000 words for the last chapter because I didn't know how I wanted to proceed so I had like 4 different versions. But at least I was able to take some of it and move it to this next chapter for a quick second publish. Thanks for all your lovely support!
You know, I actually don't like stories with a lot of OC's. I mean I'm not saying those stories aren't good but I just have some sort of annoyance against them (don't know why exactly, maybe too much trouble of memorizing new characters?). But haha, I have quite a lot of OC's in my story so I guess I went against that. I'm trying to pull them out of Miyuna's life as much as I can so that I can really develop Miyuna since she is the main character. So I'm thinking after this chapter, Wakaro and Ren will probably disappear for a long time. And maybe have Hirana and Asahi be mentioned only briefly along with her brothers when Miyuna grows up a bit more.
XXX
Chapter Eight – A Glimpse of the Future
When I arrived at the ninja academy with the Hokage holding my hand, everyone stared at me. So much unneeded attention. I flushed my usual red color and stalked nervously over to my parents who gave me hugs and kisses along with the expected whispers of "I'm so glad you're okay." Jomei and Tobari were up front close to the podium where the Hokage stalked up to give his speech. They seemed to be already conversing with kids around them, making friends so easily. They didn't quiet down until the Hokage coughed into his hand to subtly demand the children in front of him to pay attention. Meanwhile, my mother pulled me into her lap to sit since there was barely any room on the benches for me to sit with all the parents there for the inauguration of their children into the ninja academy. Bleh, I hadn't gotten anything special for my inauguration into the civilian school. I sense some favoritism going on. But honestly what did that matter? Obviously this was a military village and thus military stuff was more prized. It seemed this whole world revolved around that idea too.
"Why were you with the Hokage?" My father whispered to me as he petted my hair. The Hokage's speech was still going on in the background and I was very tempted to shush him about listening just to avoid his interrogation. He probably get offended and tease me about how I was actually interested in ninja business for once.
"I met him on my walk." I whispered back.
"Shush you two!" Hirana lightly hit her husband's shoulder and gave me a pinch on my arm.
"Ow," the two of us whined and went to rub our respective spots of injury.
We shot each other looks – my father giving me an amused look while I gave him a pouting face. Another hiss came from my mother and we were forced to obediently turn our heads forward to listen to the Hokage's speech.
"It doesn't matter what you do, if you live and die as you like. However, no matter what road you end up taking, remember to protect the people that are precious to you. Find strength in your friends and teammates and especially yourself." It was hard to believe this was the joking old man I had encountered earlier. His voice was so clear and loud, so powerful. Guess he was the Hokage after all. There was something that said a good leader was someone who knew how to separate being a friend and being in charge.
I sighed depressingly at the Hokage's words. While I was having fun or rather being scared half to death by the Hokage's mean joke, I had forgotten what I was struggling with before. I shook my head furiously, let's forget about it for now. I could think about this later.
His speech was short. Yada yada, the ordinary "work hard, train hard, become splendid ninja." After the Hokage's speech we were all dismissed from our seats to converse with the other students and parents – kind of like an after party. Some parents chose to talk to the teachers and some tried to make small talk with the Hokage.
Each newly admitted student was given a manila folder filled with all their necessary information – classroom, homeroom teacher, etc – after we were all dismissed. After the twins received their information they came running towards the three of us. While waving their folders in the air all giddily, they jumped straight into my parents arms. Tobari into Asahi's and Jomei into Hirana's. You could definitely tell which twin my parents liked and which parent the twins liked.
"Lord Hokage!" My father bowed with Tobari still in his arms as the said man walked up to us with his hands casually folded behind us. Tobari squealed in delight at the sudden motion.
What did he want? Was he going to tell my parents I was being rude? That would be a low blow, especially for the Hokage, someone who prided himself to protect the entire village.
"Hello Mei-kun, Toba-kun, I know the two of you are going to become splendid ninjas just like your Kaa-chan and Tou-chan." He greeted the two, giving them each an affectionate rub on the head.
"Thanks Grandpa Hokage–" Jomei started the sentence only to have Tobari finish it for him. It didn't seem the two even knew they always did that. "We promise to make you proud!"
Woah, woah, woah. Grandpa Hokage? They met before? Was I the only who didn't know he was the Hokage? Was I allowed to call him Grandpa Hokage too?
I felt my cheeks burn. This day was getting worse. Actually this whole week has been sucky even though I'd been out of it for most of it. My streak of avoiding ninja was undeniably ending, I just know it.
Fortunately, the Hokage seemed to only have come over to give my brothers an encouraging compliment. He left as quickly as he came but not before giving me a pat on the head. The next couple he visited was beside us. I suppose it was his job to greet everyone and converse a bit. After all, he was getting new soldiers today.
I can't think like that.
I left out a sigh and came out of hiding from behind my mother's long skirt. Slowly, we began leaving the ceremony behind us. The twins were still in my parents' arms and I padded in between them as we walked to our house.
"Are you okay now?" Hirana asked as she pressed a hand to the back of my head affectionately. Jomei was sitting against her opposite hip with her other arm wrapped around him.
"Yes, sorry for making you guys worry." I forced myself to smile up at my parents.
"Just try not to make that happen often." My father chuckled. "You were out for an entire week."
When we got home, we were surprised to find Kakashi casually chilling in our living room with one of Asahi's poetry books in his hands. Or, I was surprised while my parents seem the least bit bothered. I thought they would have scolded him for not being a good "babysitter."
Kakashi neatly placed the book on the coffee table and came to greet us. "I'm glad that Miyuna found her way to you guys. I wanted to escort her but she grew quite mad at me so I respected her wishes to stay behind. I bought her that box of mochi to take to the twins as a congratulations treat."
Such a freaking liar!
While he saved me from possibly an interrogation about my whereabouts where eventually I have to admit I was hanging out with an Uchiha (it was nearly impossible to lie to my father), he took in the praise and thanks my parents sent him like sponge.
Thanks for looking after her. You didn't have to buy her mochi. You're so kind, Kakashi-kun.
Those were only some of the compliments my mother gave him. He did nothing. In fact, he bruised my armpits from gripping me too tight. And there he was, stoically and politely saying it was no problem.
Kaa-chan invited him to stay for dinner. In the beginning, his resolve was strong in not staying. But once my brothers latched onto him and my mother mentioned she would make his favorites, he agreed to stay. Broiled saury with salt. So boring and so tasteless. Why would anyone have that as their favorite dish? Grumpily, I didn't say a word of complaint during dinner in fear that I would upset my parents or worse, him. Who knows, maybe he'll actually squeeze my arms off. But I did make sure to glare at him the entirety of dinner.
"Is there something you need, Miyuna-chan?" I could imagine him raising an eyebrow beneath his mask as he wiped his fingers on a napkin. Again, he had finished his meal in a split second when I had reached to the floor to grab Jomei's dropped utensils.
"Oh nothing," I faked sweetness at him. "Just wondering if you had blimp lips or buck teeth under your mask and that's why you refuse to take off your mask at dinner."
"Miyuna Shimewari, that is rude." Hirana scolded as she cleaned the table of empty plates and utensils.
"Sorry," I muttered.
XXX
The next morning, I woke to a blank ceiling. My blank ceiling. It seemed I was lucky enough to be spared another encounter with that strange man which I was thankful for. After shuffling some clothes on, I made myself downstairs to the kitchen. Our house was strangely quiet. Not particularly normal for a Saturday morning since the twins were born.
"Good morning, Yuna-chan. Did you sleep well?"
I jumped when my father emerged from the shadows as I reached the table for breakfast. He gave a light laugh in apology for scaring me. Somehow these days I had grown more jumpy. Which was strange given that I had chakra sensing abilities. Groggily, I ate the toast and drank the milk my mother had set aside before she left with the twins.
Asahi explained that the twins wanted to learn medical ninjutsu so they were off helping our mother with rounds in the hospital. Hirana worked seven days a week with only half days on the weekends while Asahi worked only during the week with the occasional weekends. I was thankful that my parents didn't press me for answers about my nightmare or anything. Especially since I had nearly died from releasing nearly all of my chakra from what Kakashi explained.
"Yuna-chan, you realize you can talk to me about anything, right?"
I froze mid bite with my toast. Spoke too soon.
"I do." I muttered into my cup of milk.
He left out a heavy sigh and moved closer to me to brush a stray strand behind my ear. "I'm worried about you."
Another sigh left him and I could almost feel his happiness leaving him when I blatantly ignored him. A wrenching feeling hit my chest. The empty plate and glass was taken from me and placed in the sink. I really wanted to tell him about everything. Reincarnation. My fears. Everything. But I knew that would never happen. It could but the results were going to be far from pretty.
"I'm going to go play, I'll be back for lunch." I slipped out of my seat while my father's back was turned to me.
"Actually Miyuna-chan, I will be at work for the rest of the day. Something urgent has come up recently so I need to work overtime." He stopped me before I could go out the door with his still wet hands from washing my dishes. "Here, you can buy some food if you get hungry. Make sure you don't spend it all on sweets and you get something nutritious. If you want, you can go stay with your mother and brothers at the hospital."
The money he handed me was a bit crumbled and wet from his hands, but I took it appreciatively and stuffed it in my pocket. I shot him a worried glance, asking if everything was fine. His news made my heart pump a little faster. What if this was the danger that guy was telling me about?
"No worries, it is just some of our ninjas getting into a scuffle with civilians."
Slightly more relaxed now from his reassuring statement, I gave my father a hug before going out the door. "Be careful, Yuna-chan!"
Time to think about my predicament. And make sure I don't run into Shisui Uchiha. Or the Hokage for the same matter.
To be or not to be? The golden question for the past six years since I was informed about the existence of ninjas.
Somehow walking in a straight line down a road led me to a forest clearing. Possibly a training ground from the looks of it. There was three wooden poles along with straggling targets tied to tree trunks. And the most notable feature was a large cut, shiny stone that stood in the middle of the training ground – a monument of some sort. Two people were standing in front of it.
Oh, it was Wakaro and Ren. Tenka's teammates.
I was about to whip around and walk away as briskly and quietly as I could but their sniffling sobs made me uncomfortable about leaving without at least saying some comforting words. Eh, but on the other hand, sometimes sympathetic words do more harm. I groaned to myself and begrudgingly stalked over to the two, hanging my head at my lack of resistance against my softness.
"Oh Miyuna-chan," Wakaro jumped when I squeezed in between the two of them. They both wiped away their tears against the back of their sleeves to force a smile at me.
"You don't have to wipe your tears away. It's alright." I cringed. I sounded like a mother talking to her children. I was almost an entire decade younger than them. This must be an awkward situation for them. Maybe I should just abandon ship. I didn't even know where to begin comforting them, if I could even comfort them. Not many people knew of my "genius status," so it would be good if I kept everything under tabs. Honestly, I don't think people were surprised at my smartness since I was relatively normal in that aspect other than being able to pick up information more quickly. But I think people were always surprised by the words I was able to say or the thoughts I was able to come up with.
Ren spoke robotically. "It's the number one rule that shinobi don't show their emotions. Under no circumstances should one shed tears." His eyes were dry for the most part but his tear ducts were swollen red. As for Wakaro, I could see that he was trying really hard to stop his tears but they kept coming. That almost made me feel like crying myself. I wasn't much of a person to cry over stuff.
Oh, but I can't really walk away from this. This was perhaps one of the reason I would ever become a ninja – to take all of these silly rules and throw them back at whoever invented them. I stared at the shiny stone that had a bunch of names etched into it. Near the end, Tenka's name was neatly and freshly carved by the looks of it.
I spoke softly to the two. "It's disappointing to know that ninjas value the honorable way of dying to protect the ones they love, but they don't value at all mourning for the ones they failed to protect or the ones who died to protect them."
Stop Miyuna. Stop right now before you dig yourself a grave. Someone is going to be suspicious.
I was lucky that the two didn't say anything. However, they both burst out crying again. Paling, I began to fret as this was not really the reaction I was expecting. I tried patting them their arms to calm them down but they just continued sobbing. Now I really felt like a mother. I couldn't just demand them to stop crying. I basically just told them it was okay to cry but I hadn't expected them to actually let loose. They deserved to cry. I'd prefer them to cry. But this was an awkward situation. I felt like crying too and I felt like I should be crying since I knew Tenka. At the moment, I willed myself to be strong for Wakaro and Ren. Because they needed me. Any shinobi would just tell them to stop crying. I was their only bet that would say, "Cry all you want."
After a few minutes, the two stopped. Ren stopped first and he had helped me calm down Wakaro who eventually stopped after he threw himself onto the two of us (actually more so Ren since I was too short to support him) to let out a few more sobs. "I'm sorry for calling you a brat. You're the best kid I ever babysat!" Wakaro continued sobbing.
Given any other situation, I think I would've burst out laughing at the irony of his words. Little did he know that I was actually reincarnated, if he knew then surely he'd opt to give the "best kid I ever babysat" award to someone else. I almost wanted to tell him I used to call him a brat in my head too when he came over to babysit me, but that would add more awkwardness to the situation.
"Get off us, Wakaro!" Ren growled at his teammate.
It seemed the two had cheered up after all. Wakaro wiped the rest of his tears away and finally let the two of us go.
"Let me show you another cool jutsu as thanks, Miyuna-chan." Wakaro sniffled and before I could protest adamantly he began forming hand signs.
This kid had problems. Where did he get the idea that I wanted to see another jutsu? Doesn't he remember that the first time he showed me ninja magic tricks I had fainted?
POOF. When the smoke cleared, a gigantic snail towered over Ren and me. I screamed and fell back onto my butt. HOLY SHIT! It was dripping in that slimy saliva that snails had and it was creepily moving its antennas.
"Wakaro! Don't you remember what happened last time?" Ren exclaimed, helping me up to my feet. "Are you okay, Miyuna-chan?"
"NO! WHAT IS THAT?" I screamed, clutching to Ren's waist in hopes that he had some way of protecting me from the gigantic snail.
Ren winced at my decibel of loudness. "It's just an illusion that Wakaro cast. It's the Transformation Jutsu, you should've learned it at the ninja academy." He calmly stated to me.
POOF. Wakaro was back to his old self and the gigantic slimy snail was gone.
I will never get used to the things that ninjas could do.
"Pretty cool, huh?" Wakaro snickered, rubbing his nose with his index finger. He was obviously pleased with himself.
I screeched at him again only to be cut off by Ren's palm sticking over my mouth. "NO!"
"Miyuna-chan, I'd like it if you don't burst my eardrums." Ren stated coolly. "Besides you two, this is the KIA stone. Be more respectful."
Grumpily, I gave him a nod to show I understood. Ren released my mouth and I promptly kicked Wakaro in the shin.
"Hey! I take back saying you were the best kid I babysat. You're still a brat!" He howled as he clutched his shin in pain.
"You're a bigger brat!"
"I liked it when you weren't able to talk!"
A hand clutched the back of my shirt and plucked me from the ground. Confusingly, I found it strange how I was suspended midair but it didn't take long for me to recognize that Ren had lifted me up by my shirt and given Wakaro a drop kick to send him rolling towards the trees.
"I told you two to quit it."
I was about to speak out that drop kicking your teammate was no way to behave in front of the KIA stone either but Ren's glare shut me up quickly.
"Uh, sorry." I gulped down my insult.
"Apology accepted."
XXX
Wakaro, Ren, and I walked around town. I tried leaving them behind but the two, more like Wakaro, insisted that they'd keep me company at the playground. Ren was dragged along out of worry that Wakaro would do something stupid and hurt me which was 100% plausible.
"Ah!" I flinched when I heard a scream. The three of us halted down our path to the playground to find a blonde boy in bright orange clothes being shoved to the ground by a grown up. A small group had gathered in the middle of the road. It seemed that the boy was stealing a mask from the mentioned grown up's stall. Everyone looked at him with fear and I could sense the nervous tension. The grasp Ren had on my hand also tightened. I was thoroughly confused. What was going on?
"What's the problem, old man?" The blonde boy screamed. "I was just looking at that mask."
Anger flashed in the merchant's eyes and he threw the mask the boy wanted at him. It hit him harshly, bouncing off his forehead before landing next to him. "You want it, just take it and promise to never come back!"
Obviously, there was something more going on here. If the boy was a thief the man wouldn't have just given him the mask demanding he just never return. Unless this was how people behaved towards thieves here – bribing them to never return. Totally unlikely and a completely useless tactic. But no one was helping the boy if the merchant was being unjustifiably violent with him.
"Why do you guys all look at me that way?" The poor boy screamed in pure anger. Grabbing the mask, he clutched it and ran, heading straight for the three of us. Before I knew it or could react to move out of the way, I was knocked onto my back with a stinging pain on my forehead and a heavy weight on top of me.
Well, for once, I wasn't the one running into people.
"Hey watch it!" I heard Wakaro rudely snort and whatever heaviness was on me was dragged off. Ren helped me to my feet and dusted me off all the while fretting over if I had gotten hurt. His words went in one ear and out the other as I stared blankly at the blonde boy's eyes. They were pretty. Really pretty. Sparkling blue, my favorite color.
It didn't take long for the boy to break eye contact with me, his face contorting in anger. He shoved Wakaro's hand off him and bolted out of sight.
"Are you okay, Miyuna-chan?" Ren asked again.
"Uh yeah, thanks." I replied back.
A hand slipped into mine again as I was quickly ushered away from the scene by Ren, "You should stay away from that boy."
Where did I hear that before?
XXX
BONUS:
"It's disappointing to know that ninjas value the honorable way of dying to protect the ones they love, but they don't value at all mourning for the ones they failed to protect or the ones who died to protect them." Kakashi muttered to himself as he stared at his friend's name on the KIA stone. "Huh. Just who is this girl?"
He was about to go comfort the two boys about their recent loss when Miyuna showed up. After all, Kakashi felt he could relate to their pain. He had lost his sensei and his two teammates when he was twelve. It was during that terrible war, and even though the Kanabi Bridge incident saved thousands of lives by contributing majorly to the end of the war, Kakashi couldn't help but wish that his team was never sent out on that mission. At least, Obito would still be alive. Perhaps Rin would too because Obito would be there to protect her where Kakashi failed.
When his old ANBU captain's daughter stiffly marched up to the two, Kakashi concealed himself behind a tree. He knew from the moment he met her that something was off about her. Not exactly in a bad way. Kakashi didn't know what to make of her, but he had to admit she was a genius of her own level. It was hard to believe she was a seven year old. The aloofness in her eyes or the anger that sometimes burned in them. It felt that sometimes he was around someone his age rather than a young child. But then again, he himself at the age of seven was remarkable too, not to blow his own horn.
The words she spoke to the two were beyond her maturity no doubt. But when the Wakaro kid had transformed into a large snail it seemed Miyuna was just like any seven year old. She had screamed and cowered into Ren's embrace.
Kakashi chuckled to himself, "Asahi-taichou, you have one interesting daughter."
