'I believe in love at first sight, because I've been loving my mother since the minute I opened my eyes.'
I had another whacked out dream last night.
There was a snapping turtle trying to eat my dango, and Shisui-chan jumped in through the gymnasium window, declaring that he would fight to the death for my honour (although when my honour had been besmirched was anyone's guess). Itachi-touto then came in with a basket full of baguettes and started selling them to my classmates. Emiko-chan was wearing a bathrobe and declared herself the bride of Frankenstein, hopping on one foot and singing the Italian national anthem. Itachi-touto came to me and I paid him for a baguette, and when he pulled one out and gave it to me, I moved to eat it but it turned out to be Sa-chan in a lion onesie.
Kabuto took this moment to swing into the gymnasium on a wrecking ball wearing Naruto's orange jumpsuit, cackling madly about how he'd killed Fred Weasley. I threatened to chop his ear off and he turned into Hibari Kyouya, threatening to bite me to death.
…I don't know where these dreams are coming from…
Walking down the street has become an ordeal lately. Everywhere I go, people either bow to me, stare at me with unbridled hatred, or just blank me completely with a nervous demeanour.
I hope this state of affairs ends soon. I generally enjoy being treated like a semi-normal human being, no matter what Yūhi Daiki says.
I walked into Amaguriyama and headed straight for the back of the store, eager to get my sugar fix before heading to the park. Kanro-san smiled at me with an indulgent smile, her husband Jirou-san making Imagawayaki behind her.
"What can we get you today, Akito-hime?" she said, her voice as chirpy as ever.
"Anything new?" I asked, eager to try anything out but ready to fall back on my preferred sata andagi (basically deep fried dough balls, kind of like a doughnut) and anmitsu (a cup full of jelly, boiled peas, azuki bean paste, fruit juice, sliced peaches and berries, and black sweet syrup on top).
She shook her head, promising something cleverly delicious in the winter though.
Amaguriyama is owned by the Sato family, which has ten sons, all of them married, and more than sixteen children. One of them is Sato Isamu from my class. Jirou-san is the youngest of the ten sons and Kanro-san is the eldest of the wives.
No one quite knows how that works, but no one tends to question it. Isamu is the son of the fifth son, Gorou-san, and his wife Kuchinashi-san. Apparently, they fell in love when they were fourteen, their families opposed it, she fell pregnant, Gorou-san was denounced by his family, they eloped, put their child up for adoption in a different village, returned to Konoha, were welcomed with open arms (for some hitherto unexplained reason) and then got married and had Isamu.
So he has an elder sibling floating around somewhere in east Hi no Kuni.
He told me this story back when we were four years old, saying that he wanted to become a shinobi to find his elder sibling, thus his dream to become a tracking specialist.
No, I don't know why he told me the story, but I figured it says a lot about this world that this story was told to a four year old impressionable munchkin.
Speaking of reasons for why we want to be shinobi, we have a day of that tomorrow, where every specialised corps comes in to give a lecture, and then we fill out a questionnaire that basically decides whether we're fit to serve the village or if we're too wimpy to accomplish something like that—evaluation day.
See, this is probably the test that increases the dropout rate in canon, but since we're still considered a war-time year group, we're still not allowed to drop out if we wanted to.
Now that I think about it though, I'm pretty sure Iruka (still can't believe I saved his life by the way) graduated at twelve in canon but has to graduate at ten in the current system, and he's three years older than me, which means he has to graduate this year. So I'm assuming Sandaime-sama changed the standard testing time, now that I think about it.
Also, now that I'm on this train of thought, I'm pretty sure Itachi-touto's timeline is messed up as well. Didn't he join the academy after the Kyuubi Attack? So what's he doing in the academy right now? Also, I know it's a bit sudden, but he's been in the academy for more than four months now. Didn't he finish the graduation exam four months after entering the academy? So what gives?
This is just too messed up!
How did I manage to change this?
Also, I met Hoshigaki Kisame only seven weeks ago. I don't honestly know what to make of this ridiculous turn of events. At all.
Should I just have stayed at home and focussed only on my family, without bothering to interact with people at all, and try to keep the timeline as close to canon as possible? It would have made the story more predictable, easier to change only the majorly unfair events like Uchiha Itachi's death, Uchiha Sasuke's defection, the Chidori to the Chest Incident at the Valley of the End…
But then again, this is my life.
I'm going to live it, and live it well.
It might end horribly wrong, it might end tragically, but in the end, I just have to give it my all, right? This isn't just a story that I should be careful to keep close to the original. I don't think I've ever thought of my new home as anything remotely fabricated.
Ever.
That might speak volumes for how insane I am, considering I should have had that existential crisis before, where I should have not believed this was real, being reborn and into the 'world of Naruto' as the elder sister to the most angst-ridden character of the series (seriously, Sasuke was by far the most emo character ever, and arguably the most tragic), but that just never happened.
I rolled with it, I guess.
…I'm normal, I promise!
But yeah, this is my life, and this is my home, and this is my fight to fight. Just because I have a vague idea of some things doesn't mean I'm not going to give it my all, even when things don't go the way they're supposed to.
Que sera sera right? What will be will be, and I just have to face the oncoming waves one at a time.
"I'll have a box of sata andagi, please!"
"Right away, Akito-hime," she said, and then prepared a box of around twenty of them. Will any of them survive long enough to take home with me? Unlikely.
She handed me the box and waved me off with an "Enjoy!"
I headed out into the crisp air and tugged on my knitted red scarf with a box of sweets clasped in my mitted hands.
Plod, plod, plod. Sashay, sway your hips, think like a cat, think light, think soft paws.
No, I'm not insane. I think.
"Akito-san!" called out a deep feminine voice.
I looked away from the orange leaves scattered across the streets and turned to the speaker. I nearly jaw-dropped, because Akimichi-sama was standing there in all her glory, orange eye-accents, short black hair, tanned skin and all.
"Good morning, Akimichi-sama! Lovely weather we're having!" I exclaimed, before realising that that was far too informal, but then thinking, meh. She clearly doesn't seem to mind, judging by her pleased nod.
"Autumn is truly a refreshing season, but spring is my favourite time of the year," she said, and I could practically feel her eyes glazing over, no doubt thinking about the Spring Buffet.
I know I've mentioned this before, but autumn is the Uchiha season and spring is the Akimichi season. The Spring Buffet is where all the Akimichi-owned food joints (which, you know, amounts to more than 80% of all eateries in the village) have an entire day of all-you-can-eat buffets, in honour of Hōnen Matsuri (the Harvest Festival). Many an orphan live for the 15th of March* because all the food is free for the poor.
It's also another reason why people like the Akimichi so much.
I grinned at her. "Of course. Well, I must be on my way, Akimichi-sama. Is there anything specific you wished to discuss?" I enquired.
She looked a bit hesitant for a second, but then seemed to gather herself and said boldly, "I would like to invite you and your fam…friends for lunch today, if it is amenable to you."
Two things: first, she was going to say family but stopped herself, clearly seeing that that was far too forward, and she was trying to be casual about this. Second, what? Where is this coming from? It's far more appropriate for her to contact Okaa-san and then arrange something with her, as opposed to having a casual lunch with me.
In terms of politics, I only have latent importance; I'm still only seven, no matter how many people I know or what happened during the Ten Minute Riot.
But still, this is a step in the right direction right?
"We would be honoured," I said, giving her the bow Okaa-san taught me to give to people of Akimichi-sama's station.
Bidding her a goodbye and arranging to meet at one o'clock, we parted ways. I continued plodding along, and then suddenly there was someone behind me. I whipped around so fast that I fell into the person and—
"Shisui-chan, why are you shunshin-ing in my face?" I asked with an eyebrow raised. I'd fallen on top of him and, thankfully, the sata andagi were still in their box. He grinned sheepishly from beneath me, a blush spreading across his face. My hair, which I'd opted to leave untied today, splayed across my back and onto the ground, like inky black ribbons wrapping around our tiny seven year old bodies.
"Sorry? Aki-senpai, my range's improved!" he exclaimed happily. I rolled my eyes and got off of him, then bent over to pick up the sata andagi box. Except, my red scarf was caught on Shisui-chan's kunai pouch, so I was choking.
It took us three minutes to get it detangled, after which I made him promise in the name of the Dragon of Autumn that he would never do that again; it was borderline sacrilegious that he'd allowed the sata andagi to fall to the floor.
"So sweets over your best friend? You have odd priorities, Aki-senpai…" he said, eyeing me the way one would a particularly intelligent gazelle.
It might have had to do with how I was skipping to the park, pretending that we were going down the yellow brick road, but then again, what does it matter?
"Your face is odd!"
"…why are we friends again?"
We finally got to the park (it's actually really impressive that he managed to shunshin across such a large distance—from the park to Amaguriyama, the path is winding, resembles an obstacle course, and is a fair distance to travel even on rooftops), where Emiko-chan was waiting for us on a picnic blanket, reading over a piece of classwork.
She looked up when we got closer to her and smiled at us. "Well done on fetching Akito-kun. I was wondering what was taking her so long."
I'll bet she goaded Shisui-chan into shunshin-ing that distance, even though it had never been done before by a nearly-eight year old. She does love goading people into doing reckless things…
"I come bearing sustenance!" I said dramatically, plopping onto the blanket and unwinding my scarf. Shisui-chan sat next to me and pulled out his maths homework from the pile of papers near Emiko-chan's feet.
"Ooh, Amaguriyama?" squealed Emiko-chan, rapidly stuffing five of them into her mouth in quick succession.
"Whoa, slow down Emiko-chan. Chew and swallow," I said. Being an orphan must be hard.
Luckily, Shisui-chan came prepared, a thermos of hot chocolate at the ready in case someone decided to choke to death on sweets. Yes, yes this happens frequently, and yes, yes it does happen to everyone.
She took a sip and ran a hand through her short honey-coloured hair, smiling unrepentantly. "Can you get me some water please Shisui-kun? I feel thirsty," she blinked at him with her wide green eyes, and Shisui-chan grumbled before getting up and walking to the water fountain with a little paper cup in his hand.
"Stop using my minions, Emiko-chan," I said, mock-scolding my closest female friend.
"You should train them better then Akito-kun," she retorted lightly, and we both giggled as Shisui-chan came back.
He eyed us and then blinked once. "I don't think I want to know."
We did the appropriate thing to respond to his statement and stuck our tongues out at him before laughing again.
We started doing our respective catch-up homework in companionable silence, keen to get it out of the way so that we could enjoy the rest of the day without that hassle (we only had a half day today at the academy because Bunko-sensei was off sick and they couldn't spare anyone for more than half the day), occasionally popping a sata andagi into our mouths. Itachi-touto, because he only does ninjutsu and taijutsu theory with us, still has a full day of classes with his peerage.
After I'd finished question fifteen on the worksheet, I looked up, prompting the other two to stop working as well.
"Akimichi-sama has invited the three of us to her house for lunch. You guys up for it?" I asked.
Emiko-chan bit her lip thoughtfully while Shisui-chan gazed at me contemplatively. His eyes were asking, Why? Uchiha-Akimichi relations aren't the greatest yet…is it a trap? Is she trying to do us in? Was it an imposter that asked you to come? What's she going to feed us? Should I be on my guard? Do you think there's any reason why I shouldn't come? Did you even have to ask? Of course I'll come. Does Emiko-chan's hairstyle look like a pineapple or is it just me?
I looked back and replied, I don't think it was an imposter…I'd love it if you came, because you're the genjutsu genius here. Always be on your guard, but I don't think it's necessary this time. And yes, it's not just you. The hairstyle is cute though, right?
Shisui-chan snorted before saying, "If you say so."
Emiko-chan looked at the two of us before sighing. "You two did the weird telepathy thing again, didn't you? Meanies! Anyway, yeah, I can come. Free food is free food."
Shisui-chan and I shared another look.
No, Emiko-chan still doesn't know what we talk about.
And no, I don't know how we know each other well enough to read minds either.
The Akimichi are one of the four noble clans (no one counts the Senju anymore because there's like, one of them left), and as such have quite a large compound to themselves. Wide, open houses, cheerful folk that looked at us with a mixture of curiosity, wariness, anger and hope, and this little park in the centre with lots of cocoons hanging from the tree branches. And the smell of the compound…
You know that face full of delicious smells, steam and spices (and something burning in the corner that no one likes to mention) you get when you walk into a really busy kitchen? Entering the Akimichi Clan Head's house was a very similar experience.
We headed to the largest house in the compound and I don't know whether the two storey house always smells like this or if it's just because she's cooked enough to feed the Shinobi Continent, but either way, Emiko-chan started drooling the minute we entered the cheery house.
The walls were a soft shade of brown with orange accents, the furniture was sturdy oak, colourful cushions littered the living room, paintings of famous Hi no Kuni cuisines hung in almost every corridor, and on the wall you see just as you enter the house, there's the Clan Symbol painted onto the wall, a circle with a vertical line bisecting it and two triangles in each semi-circle. Underneath the clan symbol is a table with a picture of Akimichi Chouza, a little bowl of scented oil with cherry blossom petals floating on the surface in front of it.
I must have been staring at it too long, because Emiko-chan had wiped the drool off her face and was looking at me weirdly. Shisui-chan was having trouble taking off his sandals.
I huffed a laugh and kneeled down to unclasp the buckle, saying, "Yare yare* Shisui-chan, how old are you exactly?"
"Older than you, Aki-senpai," he deadpanned, thanking me for releasing his feet.
I stood back up and bonked him on the head with an unamused expression.
"Ah, there you are! Come in, come in!" said a beaming Akimichi-sama, her face glistening with condensed steam from, as we entered the kitchen and found out, five pots merrily bubbling away on the flame stove. She sat us down at her dining table fussily, and we thanked her with drool from Emiko-chan, reserved suspicion from Shisui-chan, and a cheery smile from me.
There were four chairs around the table and one high chair with a baby gurgling happily at us. Akimichi-sama pinched the chubby baby's cheeks and introduced him to us. 'This is my pride and joy, Chouji-chan. Greet our guests Chouji-chan!'
He gurgled excitedly in our general direction, and we all waved at him with varying degrees of enthusiasm.
Emiko-chan then started fidgeting, and I looked at her with a raised eyebrow. She licked her lips nervously and said, "I really need the bathroom."
Shisui-chan said, "Well, maybe you should have gone before we came."
The exchange reminded me of every single time my old family had gone anywhere, whether to the corner store or to the airport. I giggled uncontrollably and Emiko-chan muttered, "Bowel movements aren't that funny."
That just made me laugh harder, and Shisui-chan patted me in mock consolation. "There there, Aki-senpai. It'll be over soon."
I think he thinks I'm hysterical. I just might be.
Emiko-chan went up to Akimichi-sama timidly and asked her for the directions to the bathroom. 'Of course dear! Give me a minute to—ah, there! Now I can lower the flame and it can simmer…here, I'll show you where it is.'
Akimichi-sama led Emiko-chan away, beaming all the way. She's…you know those grandma's that bake cookies and knit sweaters for their great grandchildren? That's what Akimichi-sama is like, except younger. She's nice.
Chouji gurgled in confusion, ostensibly looking for his mother, before turning his gazes to us. I doubt he's seen anyone that looks like us, what with the inter-clan tensions and the fact that Uchiha look so freaking beautiful. I mean, that's not to say that there isn't beauty in every clan (because Ino? She was beautiful. Hinata was as well, and so was Temari, and Tenten…and Tsunade…) but the Uchiha have an unnatural percentage of beautiful people. For example, Sasuke is supposed to be a boy right? Have you seen how pretty he is?
I'm jealous, and I look like a female version of him!
I shuffled my seat closer to the high chair and took a good look at the kid whose father I murdered. He looked healthy, happy and curious, and I don't know why I expected that to be different. I guess I expected to see anger and hatred, some recognition from him that showed that he knew how much I'd taken away from him.
I looked at him softly, my fingers gently raking across his downy light brown hair. I whispered to him, 'You look so much like your otou-san, Chouji-kun.'
Shisui-chan came closer and stared at the little boy who was watching my hair curiously. Sa-chan does that a lot too actually, and then he grabs it and starts yanking with all his strength, which, you know, isn't much. But by Kami-sama his grip is vice-like!
Itachi-touto doesn't have the same problem yet, but what with him deciding to grow it out and all after he discovered that Sa-chan likes long hair (and isn't it creepy that Itachi-touto's reasoning for growing out his hair is exactly like Sakura's? And all the other preteens in canon Sasuke's class, but still. Wow. Just, wow.), he only has a few more months of amnesty from Sa-chan the Hair Puller.
I pinched his cheeks and he gave me a gummy smile. I smiled softly at him and said, "You'll grow up to be just as strong as your otou-san, ne?"
Shisui-chan frowned. "I don't think he will."
I furrowed my eyebrows at Shisui-chan and wondered what he was on about. In the process, I noticed Akimichi-sama and Emiko-chan standing in the doorway. Oh boy, the potential disaster this could turn out to be is mind numbing. Please, Shisui-chan, don't let this truce meal blow up in our faces…
Shisui-chan hadn't noticed our host's return and continued looking at Chouji-kun intently. Faintly, I realised that he was intentionally avoiding my gaze. "Well," he said, as though weighing every word carefully. "You and I are twice our parents, so I don't see why he should be as strong as Chouza-sama. I think he'll be greater, because he has more than Chouza-sama in him."
Ah Shisui-chan. So cuddle-able it's ridiculous.
"You think that highly of yourself, eh Shisui-chan?" I asked slyly.
He gave me a playful look, and his shoulders lifted slightly, indicating that he'd gotten my eye-message and now knew that Akimichi-sama could hear us. "Well, Otou-san thinks humility is for weaklings and women."
I scoffed and rolled my eyes. "Men."
"Tell me about it, Akito-kun!" Emiko-chan exclaimed banterfully, sliding into her seat. "Shisui-kun, can you move to the left a bit? The sun's getting in my eyes."
Shisui-kun looked at her, utterly unamused. "No."
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Akimichi-sama giving Shisui-chan an evaluating look. I don't know what she was evaluating, but the look was there all the same.
"What good are you if you don't do my bidding?" Emiko-chan drawled with a pout.
"He's plenty useful Emiko-chan," I said, looking at Emiko-chan sweetly. "But he's mine. Get your own."
She pouted prettily at me before huffing a laugh and turning her attention to baby Chouji-kun, who'd gurgled and stolen all Emiko-chan's attention. "Ew! It's drooling!"
No, I don't understand how we're friends either.
I looked at Shisui-chan, to share a mutual look of exasperation at Emiko-chan's disgust of children, but he looked a bit dazed. I waved my hand in front of him, and he blinked suddenly and blushed. "Sorry, got lost for a moment."
I looked at him in concern. "That's not like you, Shisui-chan. Anything on your mind?"
He looked like he was about to say something, but just then Akimichi-sama said, "Food is served!" and all thoughts of anything else floated out of our minds.
"Whoa…" said a wide-eyed Shisui-chan. Emiko-chan began drooling again, and I was speechless.
Dish after dish was brought to the table: seasoned duck and roasted potatoes, three different types of rice, fish cutlets, boiled vegetables in a cheese sauce, pureed fruits and cream filled doughnuts, salt-crusted fish and bean sprouts and two flagons of gravy and milky yogurt.
"I hope I've made enough!" Akimichi-sama said cheerfully before sitting down herself.
"Enough?" asked Emiko-chan incredulously.
"Is it even okay to eat this much?" asked Shisui-chan, eyes trained on the food in dreading wonder.
"Akimichi-sama…we are tiny people. We have tiny tummies. I don't think we can—"
"Nonsense, Akito-san! This is barely anything! Now come on, dig in," she coaxed us, and Emiko-chan muttered a quick "Itadakimasu!" and dug in with gusto, as though she's never seen so much food in her life. Which, you know, she hasn't.
She took our plates and served us some food (Emiko-chan had grabbed everything in grabbing distance like an animal while Shisui-chan and I looked at the scrumptious food indecisively) before telling us once more to dispense with the formalities and eat to our hearts' content.
When the first morsel of spiced duck in gravy touched my tongue, my heart stopped.
Figuratively speaking of course. Shisui-chan moaned in pleasure and said to me, "She's trying to kill us with food, isn't she?"
I could only nod before continuing. Eating that food was something else entirely. I mean, Okaa-san is a brilliant cook, don't get me wrong, but comparing her cooking to Akimichi-sama was like comparing crackers to a five star main course.
There just wasn't any comparison.
Halfway through my second helping, Shisui-chan nudged me and said in worry, "Should you really be eating so much?"
I paused before another bite of cheesy broccoli entered my mouth and thought about this. Should I really be eating so much? Emiko-chan had collapsed in a food coma and Akimichi-sama was happily feeding Chouji-kun roast potatoes after mashing it up a bit. Shisui-chan had polished off his first plate and was sitting there looking at my heavily laden second plateful.
I shrugged. "I'll work it off later." I stuffed three spoons of vegetables and duck into my mouth and gave him an I'm-in-heaven look. "This is too delicious to care about overeating!"
Akimichi-sama laughed and Shisui-chan grinned, all worry fading away. "Well, I can't have you hogging all the food, can I?"
It eventually turned into a competition between us and Emiko-chan started cheering us on, and with a mouth stuffed with duck and carrots, you have to wonder how we didn't die of embarrassment from the experience.
Ah, the resilience of children.
When the lunch was over and a succulent dessert of fruit custard crumble was served—I'm in heaven, and Akimichi-sama is an angel—we bid her adieu and walked Emiko-chan to the Konoha Orphanage.
Just before we left the Akimichi Clan compound completely, Shisui-chan stopped me for a moment and said, "I meant what I said though, about you being more than your parents."
He looked anxious about something, like as if he knew something I didn't but wouldn't tell me because it wasn't his place. Even knowing that it wasn't simply a compliment though, I couldn't help but blush and grin at his sincere expression.
"Thanks, Shisui-chan. And in my opinion, there isn't a better hand-stander in the village than you!" I flashed a toothy smirk at him and even threw in a peace sign for good measure.
Immediately, he deadpanned. "Yay. My life is complete. I have succeeded at life. Go me."
The voice, the expression and the lack of enthusiasm made me laugh so hard that I had to lean on Shisui-chan, because otherwise I would have collapsed, and I was wearing one of my better kimonos so I didn't want to get it dirty.
"You two done having your secret conversation yet or should I wait longer?" Emiko-chan called out, one eyebrow arched in mild annoyance.
We hurried over to her and Shisui-chan said, with a perfectly straight face, "We were just discussing world domination. Don't worry though, you're not on the execution list."
Emiko-chan blinked and I couldn't help but add, "Although we haven't ironed out all the details, we're thinking of starting with The Hidden Chicken Village. What do you think?"
Emiko-chan looked really confused, and Shisui-chan had a brilliant face of complete innocence while I only just managed to keep the laughter off my face. "And just think, Emiko-san!" he said. "A world without banana bread!"
Emiko-chan flushed and yelled hysterically, "Those two things don't even connect no matter how I look at it!"
I burst into laughter, and Shisui-chan followed soon after. Emiko-chan huffed and refused to talk to us until we got to the Orphanage for our mandatory weekly check on every person within, and when we did our usual rounds, we found something really disturbing and…
Came to a worrying conclusion.
"Kabuto's not going to like this…" I muttered as Shisui-chan and I headed to the Naka River for our Sunset Watching.
Shisui-chan was hand standing again, and he flipped out of it and tilted his head at me. "About that…were you ever planning on telling me the truth about Megane-chama?"
I sensed just a tiny bit of anger, and it was completely justifiable. Quite frankly, I'm impressed he managed this long without bringing it up.
I hummed in thought, because would I have?
I mean, Kabuto was in a very precarious position, and the last time he'd managed to drop in for R&R—seriously, if it wouldn't have drawn attention to me, I would have bought another bed just for Kabuto, what with the fact that my room is now his second home, the first place he returns to when the missions he goes on take their toll and he just wants to know that the world is still normal, still standing even if his mind is rupturing at the seams—he'd been worried that Danzou was on to his double-agent-ness. I'm not very happy with that turn of events, and I can tell that Minato-sama isn't either.
But it wasn't like we hadn't expected it; Danzou isn't an idiot, and our cover story depended on him seeing me as someone with the skills to rival his ROOT forces.
Kabuto was supposed to kill me, and he didn't. Our cover story was that he couldn't, that I was strong enough to take him even after Danzou's insane training regime (Kabuto flinches every single time the word 'training' is mentioned, and he's the type that would take on a raging hellhound without batting an eyelash, so I know it must have been messed up) and Okaa-san's timely arrival just added validity to that story. However, she's also an Uchiha, so that was bound to be a sticking point for anyone that wanted to poke holes in the otherwise sound cover-up.
But back to the point, would I have told Shisui-chan about Kabuto? And if I would've, then how much?
"Probably. Eventually. But really Shisui-chan, you still don't know all that much. I was expecting questions a long time ago."
He gave me a sharp glance before sighing. "Then tell me. Tell me everything."
And so I did (after double-checking that no one was eavesdropping and getting Shisui-chan to do the same).
We sat down on the banks of the Naka River and watched the sky grow a molten amber and gold, the piercing rays spilling onto the glittering water and the sky smearing itself with reds and purples. The sun dipped into the earth, the purples faded into pinks and the reds faded to dark blues and greys.
Both our eyes were trained on the miracle before us as I told him about the Nonou-Danzou conversation Kabuto and I had overheard almost six months ago (time sure does fly by, doesn't it?), that Kabuto had told me about his 'special training' as soon as he'd been initiated, how Kabuto had been assigned by Danzou to kill me, the seal on Kabuto's tongue that prevented him from discussing anything about his double life, the meetings with Minato-sama about the Orphanage, my promise to Kabuto…
By the time I stopped talking, the stars had pierced the dark heavens above us and the wind had picked up enough to make me feel grateful that I had a warm scarf and mittens to prevent the worst of it.
Shisui-chan's teeth were chattering, although he didn't seem to notice, too busy absorbing all the information I'd dumped on him. It was only then, when I saw the shadows playing across his pale face, that I realised just how much I'd been keeping from him. It made me sad, in a way I can't quite explain.
"So," he finally said, looking at me for the first time since he'd asked me to spill. "Kabuto is in pretty deep shit, Danzou-sama is a douchebag, and you're somehow his target without actually doing anything to warrant his attention. And Yondaime-sama is in on this. Am I missing anything?"
I couldn't have summarised it better myself. I shook my head, indicating that he'd nailed it. Shisui-chan took a deep breath and let it out huffily. "Ma, Aki-senpai? Next time a two-time war veteran and member of the Shinobi Council with an army of emotionless machines at his beck and call has a vendetta against you, you'll let me know a bit before I happen to stumble upon it, yeah?"
And there's only one thing to do when someone asks for a favour. "Only if you tell Kabuto that there are kids missing from the Orphanage without anyone's knowledge."
Shisui-chan's eyes widened. He got up abruptly and said in a falsely cheerful voice, "Would you look at the time! Okaa-san will be going mental right about now! See you tomorrow, Aki-senpai!"
And he shunshin-ed away like the coward he was.
Wonderful.
How do I break it to Kabuto anyway? He nearly went catatonic when I mentioned Nonou-san was on an unclassified, illegally authorised mission in Kumo; I don't know how he's going to take the news that his fellow orphans are disappearing left right and centre without any trace of them. And apparently, it's been going on for a few weeks now; it's just that today, we finally noticed it. I feel like I've failed Kabuto on some higher emotional level.
But you know, disappearing children rings a bell…
Brain. Too. Clogged. To. Remember.
All I'm getting is cat, Kakashi, and wood, and if that isn't disturbing enough, I keep thinking 'isolated wooden cabin in the middle of nowhere' and 'tongue'.
Ew.
I woke up bright and early for another fun filled day of classroom interaction, social mingling, lunch invitations, midnight diaper duty and being kept up all night (although that's improving rapidly as the days pass by as Sa-chan falls into a regular sleeping pattern, thank Kami-sama).
But unlike most days, I was on time. Itachi-touto blinked at me weirdly and tried to undo whatever genjutsu he seemed to think he was under.
I would be offended at his lack of faith in me if I didn't find it amusing.
Ruffling his hair with a laugh, I said, "Can't be late for evaluation day, ne Otouto?"
He nodded solemnly and picked up his bag before we both walked out to the corner where we usually meet Shisui-chan before madly dashing across the roads to reach the academy.
…okay, maybe his lack of faith in my time keeping is justified.
Shisui-chan was sitting on one of the porches with a scroll in hand, reading it leisurely as though planning on waiting for a long time.
"Yare yare, Shisui-chan. You've gotten too lax," I drawled, and his head snapped up and his eyes widened comically.
"The apocalypse is nigh," he intoned solemnly.
I swatted the back of his head and gave him an exasperated look. "Idiot!"
We didn't run this time, taking in all the sights and sounds of the morning bustle. Sweet breads being sold in the stalls instead of takoyaki, the morning breakfast rush melding with rushing children and screaming infants (and their haggard parents ranting at Life as though it could actually hear them), the tinkling sound of the wind chimes on display, the sounds of wives on the balconies putting out the laundry or taking it in and singing songs and prayers, the melody of the morning mingling with the mewls of cats and grumbles of grandpas and barks of dogs and shouting and laughing and chattering and running and…
I smiled and Itachi-touto looked at me questioningly. I simply said, "Nothing, Otouto. Just falling in love with our village all over again."
He smiled in understanding and looked around for himself. That's the thing about Itachi-touto you see—he's as patriotic as I am. I'm not demeaning his patriotism, because what he did for the village was well beyond self-sacrifice in canon; I'm saying that I am equally as patriotic, and no one but the two people walking next to me quite truly understand what I feel for Konoha.
I've never belonged anywhere, you know? In my old world, my family moved from their country of origin to another place, and then when I hit fifteen we moved again, and then I'd died that ridiculously tragic death of mine. I'd followed the cultures of one place, the laws of another, and the media of the third. In short, I was a mix of many different places, and while I loved all three places, I never felt like I truly belonged to any one place.
Here, it's different, in the most amazing way possible.
That's why I'm not all that worried about evaluation day and how much I'm going to have to fake it—I don't have to. I love Konoha with everything I have, I would put my life on the line for my people, I genuinely think the current Hokage is the greatest thing in history (this world or my old world), and I genuinely wouldn't feel comfortable belonging anywhere else.
I have nothing to hide about my motives because they're all that those in power desire (although the specific details of my life goals—preventing the Uchiha Massacre, stopping Sasuke (now Sa-chan) from defecting, preventing the Chidori-to-the-chest incident, protecting Naruto from the inevitable prejudice he's going to face—because if anyone found out about that, it would get really messy) and anything that seems slightly out of place doesn't matter, because Minato-sama's practically my godfather (although Teyaki-ji-san, bless his overworked and underpaid heart, is my actual one, he's just not quite as awesome).
Although I don't think it's going to be that easy. They haven't told us what the tests entail, but whatever it is, I hope it isn't too impossible. Itachi-touto is going to be doing the evaluation with us instead of his peerage, so that's always an interesting thing. I think that they really want him to graduate early, but what's surprising me is that they haven't already done it yet. It's not even as though no one has ever graduated at age five, because Kakashi. Enough said.
Oh well. I'm not complaining.
I think that if it ever came down to it, I wouldn't want Itachi-touto to graduate earlier than me, for various reasons, both political and personal. But the main reason is because, if he graduates before me, I'll still be in the academy while he'll be out there risking his neck, and there won't be a snowball's chance in hell for me to volunteer myself to go help him. I mean, I know he's Uchiha Itachi, but I can't help but worry about him, you know?
It's a big sister thing.
'Itachi-sama!' yelled a prepubescent boy, and the look of pain on Itachi-touto's face was hilarious. I turned around with a smile at a kid of five with mousy brown spiky hair who was running full pelt towards us with two other boys in tow, all looking indecently excited to have run into Itachi-touto.
"People you know, Otouto?" I asked out of the corner of my mouth.
"Please make them go away, Aneki," he muttered in a strained voice. How could I not oblige?
I threw a glance at Shisui-chan, who winked back at me.
"My, what do we have here? Fanboys?" Shisui-chan asked good-naturedly.
The loud-looking one paused and gave Shisui-chan a once over before looking at him suspiciously. "Who are you?" he bit out rudely, and his two lackeys tried and failed to look threatening on either side of him.
"I'm glad you asked!" exclaimed Shisui-chan dramatically. He hit them with a minor area effect genjutsu which made it seem as though his eyes were an unholy shade of pink, his hair was long and white, and that every time he spoke, sparkles came out of his eyes.
"I am the great Buji-baba! I have come to ensure you don't complete your quest, and I will not stop until all of you swear eternal allegiance to me! Heed my words, young children!"
He then created a genjutsu cloak and held it up to his face in a dramatic fashion.
The loud-looking one gulped before visibly mustering up the effort to stand his ground. "You don't scare us! We're under Itachi-sama's protection!"
I gave Itachi-touto a quick sideways glance as I weaved a genjutsu that created a cardboard box in front of us, visible only to the three fanboys. He face palmed in annoyance, and I've come to realise that I really like exasperated!Itachi a lot more than is perhaps healthy.
"Care to share, brother dearest?"
"Later."
We both turned to watch Shisui-chan's theatrics, which I'll admit were the most hilarious antics I'd ever seen, if only because he had a completely straight face while acting like Buji-baba.
"Ohohoho! Where is your Itachi-sama now?! I have hidden you from him, and he'll never find you!"
"Go away, meanie!" yelled one of the lackeys with eyes as wide as saucers and snot streaming down his face in pure terror. I shouldn't be laughing, but by Kami-sama was that face funny!
"My powers are legendary!" continued Shisui-chan, really getting into it. "I can turn humans into monkeys, and then monkeys into beetles, and then beetles into steaks, and then steaks into a full course meal, and then I eat the meal which is a steak which is a beetle which is a monkey which is a human which is YOU!"
I was literally rolling on the floor, the laughs were impossible to keep in, and Itachi-touto was looking torn between incredulity and hysteria, which made me laugh even harder.
The three fanboys ran full pelt into the school, now thoroughly traumatised.
Shisui-chan dropped the genjutsu and came towards us with a satisfied grin on his face. I wiped the laughter tears from my eyes and hugged him. "I haven't laughed that much in ages! I love you, Shisui-chan!"
He blushed as bright as a crab and, still chuckling, I took Itachi-touto's hand in mine and we walked to the academy.
Only to be stopped again. "Itachi-kun!"
Itachi-touto gave a full body twitch before relaxing once he realised who it was. "Aren't we mighty popular today, Itachi-chama?" said Shisui-chan cheerfully, although his face was still flushed.
He ignored Shisui-chan, instead opting to face Izumi-chan with an amiable expression on his face.
"Good morning, Izumi-chan."
"Good morning! I didn't expect to see you here so early. You're usually the last one to arrive," she said, and Itachi-touto gave me a fleeting murderous look while I gave him a sheepish smile back.
"But I'm glad I caught up with you. I wanted to thank you for the other day," she said with an easy smile, and Itachi-touto reciprocated it in kind, although perhaps with less of the beaming and more of the easiness.
"Oh, good morning to you as well, Akito-nee-sama!" she exclaimed, finally noticing her surroundings.
I am now planning Itachi-touto's wedding and their beautiful children's baby names.
"Good morning, Izumi-chan. What happened the other day?" I asked.
"Ah, not that I don't want to know as well," interrupted Shisui-chan. "But at this rate, we're going to be later to the academy than usual. Maybe some othet time?"
And he was right. We made it to class five minutes later than we usually did, and the glare Bunko-sensei, with the bags under her eyes and extremely pale skin, levelled at us was enough to make us gulp and scuttle to our seats. She looked demonic, and I don't think she's over her sickness.
"Now that everyone's here," she grit out pointedly. "We have a new student today. He was tutored at home, so if there are any gaps in his knowledge, I expect all of us to help him out. Any questions? Hageshī-kun, stop sucking your thumb!"
The Inuzuka of our class quickly put his hand away with a pout, while his puppy yipped aggressively from his spot on his human partner's desk. Yūhi Daiki raised a straight hand up into the air and Bunko-sensei motioned for him to speak.
"What is your name, new one?" he asked with a clear-eyed expression. If his form of address was archaic, we didn't tend to mention it much.
The kid at the front of the classroom, a scowl fixed on his face and his eyes narrowed in annoyance, said in a thin reedy voice, "Tsumiki Kido."
There was something about the pink-eyed, dark blue-haired boy that set my teeth on edge. I don't want to do the whole judging-people-by-their-appearance thing, but I bet that even if Tsumiki Kido hadn't had slicked back hair and beady eyes, I would still not appreciate his existence. Not that I'm going to let it show of course—the last time I did that, Kabuto spent more than a year without a single friend.
Bunko-sensei told Kido to take his seat behind Sato Isamu, and the class was silenced once more.
"We'll begin today with a written test, evaluating everything we've done in the last three years. I hope you all put yesterday to good use."
Several groans sounded from across the room as Bunko-sensei handed out the test papers (each one was so thick, I don't think we'll be doing anything but the written test), and then without much further ado, we all took our pencils out and began scratching out the answers. There were, thankfully, far more multiple choice questions than regular questions, so the first six pages or so of over forty MCQ took roughly twenty minutes for me to finish.
Now, keep in mind that I'm an Uchiha, so my memory is far better than most. If it took me twenty minutes, unless your last name is Uchiha or Yūhi, it'd take a little less than double the amount of time for most other people. And that's not taking into account people like Seki-kun and Hageshī, the two that drag the class average down when it comes to written tests.
The test had lots of obscure factual questions, a good chunk of history questions, a lot of maths and trajectory questions, some tactical questions, heaps of shinobi code regurgitation, and one entire section on personality profiling.
We do this thing where we profile a historical person (mine was Senju Mito) and try to gauge what they'd do in certain situations. We get a list of scenarios, and we guess to the best of our abilities. Shisui-chan is particularly good with these types of questions, and so is Emiko-chan. Itachi-touto has a bit of trouble with these types of questions and so do I, for basically the same reason—we write down what they ought to do, not what they would actually do. In essence, we channel ourselves into these people, and this makes us lose marks depending on who's marking the papers.
But over time, I'm sure I'll get better at character profiling, and Itachi-touto is already improving by leaps and bounds.
Personal profiling is a big part of this year's curriculum because it teaches us to think like the enemy/target/infiltrator and to become an infiltrator/spy. Figuring out how other people think based on minimal information about them is a key aspect of being a shinobi, and it is definitely something I need to work on.
After the test that took us more than half the day to finish, we had lunch break. Itachi-touto was mobbed by his fanboys once more, and just as I was about to intervene, Izumi-chan came running down the corridor and started yelling at them to "get out of Itachi-kun's face and show some decorum!"
Me thinks complex vocabulary at young age is an Uchiha thing. Don't quote me on that though.
Emiko-chan started complaining about her wrist really loudly the minute we reached the grassy field and began sniffling in agony. Shisui-chan and I shared a blank look before I started condescendingly patting her head until she nearly bit my hand off.
"That wasn't very nice, Emiko-chan," I chided her, and she stuck her tongue out at me playfully.
"So what do you think of Tsumiki-san?" asked Shisui-chan after we'd settled down with our bento.
I hummed in thought before stuffing a shrimp into my mouth.
"He smells like he hasn't taken a shower in weeks," sniffed Emiko-chan, scrunching up her nose in distaste. "And who even has pink eyes anyway?"
"I'm going to reserve judgement," I said diplomatically, because I didn't really have much more than a gut feeling against him.
Shisui-chan said in a low voice, "He's staring at us, Aki-senpai."
Emiko-chan shuddered before looking around for Kido. "Ew! Where?"
"My four o'clock."
Emiko-chan and I looked at the direction and saw Kido glaring at us with bared teeth. When he noticed we were looking, he pointed at us and mimed slitting our throats.
Emiko-chan's lower lip wobbled in fear and Shisui-chan clenched his knuckles tightly.
I started laughing, because come on, would you take an eight year old with baby pink eyes seriously?
I mean, Sakura's pink hair was pushing the realm of believability, and Komoto Togari gets away with her deep pink eyes quite well, and neither one of them are very intimidating. But at least they both made it work.
But baby pink?
The poor sod can glare and threaten my life all he likes. He's about intimidating as Winnie the Pooh.
The second half of the day was spent listening to various lectures from representatives of the T&I department, the cypher corps, infiltration, the medical corps (I'm still reading all the books they dumped on me in the hopes that I'd finish my rudimentary medical training before graduating), the sealing division, weaponry department, the Daimyo's Guardians, the KMPF and about a dozen odd more.
They all melded into one at some point, because Kido kept staring at me. I know, I know. The world doesn't revolve me and he could have just been glaring at Shisui-chan, who was sitting next to me, or Emiko-chan, who'd begun snoozing on my shoulder the minute the infiltration specialist representative stopped talking. But I'm pretty sure he's staring at me, and when I told Shisui-chan this, he agreed with me completely.
"The real question is, why does he want you dead?"
"If I could answer that Shisui-chan, my life would be so much easier."
His lips twitched into a wry smile and the cogs in his brain have been whirling over time ever since, trying to figure the mystery of Kido's Killer Intent out.
After more than three hours of lectures varying from interesting (the sealing division) to downright sadistic (the T&I department), we did a half hour practical exam, where all the representatives watched us like hawks. I am happy to note that I beat everybody on the obstacle course, and came in third in the spars (after Shisui-chan and Itachi-touto). The target test (we used actual kunai for the first time) was a bit of hit and miss, with five of us getting in nineteen out of twenty—Yūhi Daiki, Shisui-chan, Itachi-touto, Hyuuga Higaishi and me.
On a completely unrelated note, Higaishi, if translated using the basics of Japanese, literally translates to Mr Damage.
I couldn't stop snickering after that particular introduction, and somehow, I don't think that that's improved Hyuuga-Uchiha tensions much.
Yare yare…
After school, our year group was held back for the dreaded questionnaire, and some of the faces looked downright mutinous.
Mine may or may not have been one of them. Itachi-touto may or may not have crushed his bento with the force of his ire. Shisui-chan may or may not have death-glared Bunko-sensei into a pile of stutter. Emiko-chan may or may not have actually fainted.
Yūhi Daiki looked stoic, Hyuuga Higaishi looked impassive, the Akimichi of our year group munched on some tofu-flavoured chips (don't ask me how he can stomach that junk. I still can't get my head around how he can manage to pack away so many bags of what essentially boils down to salted cardboard.), the Yamanaka and Inuzuka Hageshī were yelling loudly in annoyance, Sato Isamu looked at the academy doors longingly and—
Tsumiki Kido was still staring at me.
Oh well. He can be creepy if he wants to be. Who am I to stop him?
The questionnaire was handed to us and we were forced to sit down and complete it in utter silence (any grumbling was met with senbon thrown close enough to our jugulars to be threatening. So it's not just bad parenting; it's bad teaching too in this mad mad world).
The questions were fairly roundabout, but in the end, I doubt I wrote anything down that implied I was a sneeze away from committing mass genocide and then defecting from the village, all the while interacting with a creepy snake pedo.
Or something.
One particularly interesting question was, Of the options given below, which action would you follow if a gorilla landed on your client's tent?
a) Scream bloody murder
b) Call for help
c) Adopt it
d) Skin it for its financial value
e) Shoo it away
f) Let it give the client a concussion because she's the noisiest, most irritating she-devil you've ever come across. And if she dies, it's simply natural selection, right?
g) Kill it to protect your client
Now, not that I'm biased or anything, but I'm fairly certain that's a question written by the T&I specialist that did the half hour lecture on stupid clients, pet monkeys and flying hippos.
No, don't ask me how they all connected. All T&I specialists are insane.
I went with e), but I was very tempted to go for a) or f), simply for the lols.
But for this one, I think, barring f), there really isn't a wrong answer.
Don't quote me on that though.
The minute we finished the questionnaire, we were given the green light to flee, and flee we did. Of the four of us, Emiko-chan was the only one still writing, and we did the friendly thing and waited outside for her.
Yes, I know, we're such amazing friends right?
Shisui-chan was leaning against the fence and kicking stones in a bored fashion, Itachi-touto was quietly going over the work he'd missed in his regular classes today because of the Evaluation, and I was plaiting and unplaiting strands of my hair in different styles.
A few minutes of waiting later, we were shaken from our reverie with a high-pitched voice calling out.
"Akito-nee!" followed by yips of excitable puppies.
There, running full pelt towards us with the Haimaru triplets streaking behind her, was Hana-chan, her face faintly smudged with dirt and something clasped in her right hand tightly.
I waved at her, and when she reached us, she nodded at Shisui-chan (who nodded back in acknowledgement) and sniffed in Itachi-touto's direction and said a curt "Pink-eyes" in greeting.
While Itachi-touto looked mildly uncomfortable, he nonetheless asked her politely, "How have you been, Hana-san?"
I'd heard through the gossip channels, and from Kushina-ba-chan who'd heard from Minato-sama, that Hana-chan was going to therapy sessions, but that the trauma was minimal because of the way the situation was handled (meaning no bloodshed or overt threatening behaviour, like, I don't know, licking blood off a blade or something…but I don't know how Kisame would manage to do that with Samehada anyway…).
Inuzuka-sama seemed grateful and altogether un-angry at us for "dragging her daughter into the Uchiha machinations" as Jaberu-san put it when they'd come to collect Itachi-touto's and my statements.
And no, apparently the KMPF wasn't trusted enough to handle the investigation objectively (another slight on the Uchiha that people had been grumbling about) and so T&I was doing it instead.
"What are you on about? I'm fine! Even got a month off school, and the status boost is great! But you know that already!" she babbled, and it was only then that I realised she was nervous about something.
"Is something the matter, Hana-chan?" I asked in concern, because she didn't strike me as the type to even know what nervousness meant.
She began fiddling with the piece of string in her hands that, upon closer inspection, turned out to be a braided leather necklace with three tiny fangs woven into it. The three leather strands she'd used to presumably make it were each a shade different from each other, but only if you looked really closely.
"Did you make that?" I asked, impressed once again by her creativity.
"Y-yeah," she said, stuttering in her nervousness, looking anywhere but at me. "Been making it for the last week, ever since the youngest Haimaru brother lost his first canine. Y-you know, for you."
"For me?"
She looked up at me then with a large blush covering her face and nodded. "As a thank you, for, you know, saving me and stuff. You were amazing!"
She beamed at me with the blush still on her face, and I chuckled before taking the proffered necklace from her hand. "It's beautiful," I said with a soft smile, and she blushed even harder.
"Well, yeah, so…anyway," she muttered, shuffling her feet, before quickly closing the distance between Itachi-touto and herself, and kissing his cheek swiftly before bidding a very abrupt and hasty retreat. "And that's your thank you, Pink-eyes!"
If Itachi-touto still looked stunned after I'd put on the necklace that was really more of a loose choker and Emiko-chan had come out of the academy muttering dark and sinister things, none of us mentioned it.
Even though Shisui-chan was snickering into his hands the entire way home.
If possible, the whispers following me everywhere I went picked up in intensity. It may or may not have had anything to do with the prominently displayed gleaming fangs tied around my neck.
When I'd gotten home the week before, when I'd gotten the checklace (choker-necklace) from Hana-chan, Okaa-san had smirked and patted me on the head before heading back into the living room to feed a chubby Sa-chan some more boiled vegetables and orange juice. Apparently, an Inuzuka giving someone outside their clan the first fangs of their ninken showed that they'd basically adopted them into the clan.
Or something vaguely similar to that, like as though they'd acknowledged me as one of their distant relatives or something, and that in my time of need, they would gladly support me in my endeavours. Or bestowed me with the greatest honour the Inuzuka could bestow someone outside their clan, like as though Hana-chan and I now had a special bond, and seeing as we're both heiresses, the political consequences are mind-boggling.
…I don't even like dogs…
Or, you know, it could just be that she wanted to give me a present that meant a lot to her, and ended up causing a political quagmire for her clan.
Yare yare…
Anyway, I was heading to Rin-chan's apartment to meet her and Obito-kun (seriously, the amount of time Obito-kun spends at Rin-chan's house—they might as well get married now instead of waiting till they're sixteen!*...okay, maybe it'll be frowned upon, but everyone knows they're meant to be anyway).
With a box of daifuku and a white woollen hat covering my ears from the wind that's been picking up recently (Hoso-baa-san is on a roll with this years' Uchiha knitwear), I walked up the stairs of Rin-chan's apartment complex and knocked on the second door to the right on the second floor.
After a while of waiting, the door opened and I was ushered in by Rin-chan, who gave me a hasty smile and then gave Obito-kun a quick goodbye and rushed out of the apartment, ostensibly for work.
"Come in, Aki-hime! You're letting in the cold," said Obito-kun from his seat on the comfy blue sofa with a soft white flower pattern on it.
"Good afternoon, Obito-kun!" I said, closing the door behind me. "Been abandoned again, have you?"
He grumbled good-naturedly before asking me to put the daifuku in the kitchen. "Rin-chan'll give me some when she gets back from work in—" he looked at the clock hanging from the wall. "—seven hours and ten minutes."
It's sweet that he's already counting.
"Where's Kakashi-san?" I asked, having heard from Rin-chan when I was at the hospital the other day that Obito-kun was under near constant surveillance because of wandering thoughts and the potential threat of him committing suicide due to his injuries.
Not that I think he will, but the general trend when a shinobi gets a debilitating injury is that they commit suicide rather than face the harsh reality of never going into work again, and being essentially useless to the village they'd signed up to give their lives for.
But enough of the depressing stuff.
"He's on a mission. Somewhere doing something about something or other."
I deadpanned. "Do you want to try again? I don't think you were being vague enough."
He chuckled lightly and motioned for me to sit down.
Snuggling into the blanket carelessly draped on the back of the sofa, I eyed him cautiously and asked, "How's the recovery going?"
I'd heard from Rin-chan (on the same day I heard about the suicide watch) that the recovery process wasn't going as expected.
He chuckled again, but this time there was an edge of bitterness in it. "Brilliantly. I'm going to go completely blind and there's not a damn thing they can do about it, but that's life, you know?"
"They don't know that for sure, Obito-kun. They only think removing your other eye might be an eventuality. They aren't certain what's causing this—this—"
"Sharingan malfunction? No, I don't suppose they do. Since when has an Uchiha come back from a mission that killed one of their eyes anyway? Most stab themselves in the gut before coming home with this hanging over their heads," he said bitterly, and I wished I could help but I don't know how.
It's killing me, having my inadequacies shoved in my face like this. What good is helping others when I can't even help my own precious people?
He wasn't even looking at me, teeth gritted and the one fully functional arm flexing in anger.
"But let's not talk about that," he said with a sigh, releasing the tension from his body. "Let's talk about what a boneheaded thing you did on the 24th of September."
I grinned at him sheepishly and said, "Whoops?"
He scoffed at me. "Yeah, whoops."
He turned to face me in my blanket-cocoon and his one eye softened. "Proud though I am that you saved that kid, and that you stayed out of the fighting, and that it all turned out so well because of all your hard work…Aki-hime, don't you dare scare me like that again."
My eyes might have watered slightly at hearing the concern in his voice, but if you point it out, I'll deny it completely.
"I'll try, Obito-kun," I said, giving him a big hug and burying my face in the crook of his neck.
He wrapped both his arms around me, the mauled one and the good one, squeezing me gently.
"You could have died you numpty," he muttered with an exhale.
"I know," I muttered too, still hugging him. "I promise to try not to scare you on one condition."
He withdrew from the hug and gave me an enquiring frown. "Condition?"
I nodded and cheerfully said, "I get to do Rin-chan's hair for the wedding."
He laughed then, and if his ribs hurt immediately after and I had to go get some painkillers for him after, well.
That's life, ne?
I was walking to Kushina-ba-chan's house to visit for the fifth time this fortnight.
Don't ask me why, but I've been learning how to make teas of different flavours and their origins from the biggest tea enthusiast of the village.
And the scariest part is?
Itachi-touto has been initiated into the Tea Worshipping Cult.
He's as bad as Kushina-ba-chan is! You can't take him anywhere anymore without him asking for a cup of tea—multiple times, and multiple flavours.
By Kami-sama, it's freaking ridiculous! I told Otou-san this, and you know what he did?
He shrugged and said "meh".
No, seriously, I kid you not. He literally said "meh" and walked off as if this bit of information isn't a torn piece of the space-time continuum flapping around in the cesspit of the plot deviations that are now my life.
In retrospect, I may have been overreacting.
I knocked on the door but, not receiving any summons and realising the door was unlocked, I went in and headed to the living room, where the voices were emanating from.
Someone hysterical that sounded like Okaa-san (and surprise surprise, actually was Okaa-san) was ranting about something, and when I opened the door…
I wished I hadn't.
"—I wish that girl had never been born!" vented Okaa-san.
And as though I needed any confirmation that she was talking about me (call it a gut feeling that told me 'girl' was 'Akito'), Kushina-ba-chan said, "Get over it then Miko-chan, because my goddaughter isn't going anywhere."
Okaa-san's eyes narrowed and she hissed, "You don't get it, Kushina. If you had a daughter like her—"
"Akito-chan?"
I was frozen in the doorway, and both the women inside snapped their heads towards me in shock. Minato-sama placed a hand on my shoulder gently and…
I ran.
I couldn't stand to look at Okaa-san's pale horrified face.
It was ripping at something deep inside, and I don't want to feel this pain.
Because this? I have never felt pain like this before.
...She's supposed to be my mother.
I must have walked quite a bit of a distance in a daze, because I'm sitting on a bench overlooking the Naka River, staring at my hands and wondering what on earth I'd done to Okaa-san for her to wish I'd never been born.
"Akito-chan?"
I didn't look up to see Minato-sama, even when he came and sat on the bench next to me and said, "You know she didn't mean it, right?"
I looked up at him after a beat, and said, "I know. People say mean things in the heat of the moment, and they don't really mean them. I understand."
He looked at me with sombre eyes, and I looked away, because looking at that expression any longer would break me.
"Akito-chan, look at me?"
And look I did, because whether it was a command or not, it didn't matter. I loved him too much not to listen to him.
"It doesn't matter what Mikoto-san thinks of you; I'm glad you exist. I don't know what my life would be like without you. You're one of the greatest things that has ever happened to me, even better than becoming Hokage."
He said it with such an assured and steady voice, with such conviction in his eyes, that it made me believe him even though my head was spinning around in a series of why would anyone want me? I'm not even supposed to be here. I killed people that weren't supposed to die! I can't—
He placed both his hands on my shoulders to steady my trembling, and it wasn't until then that I'd noticed I was doing it.
"I love you, Akito-chan. Don't ever doubt that," he said, equal parts fierce and gentle.
He brought me closer to him in a loose hug as the dam burst and I started blubbering like a baby, complete with sound effects and closed eyes.
It was like rain, you know?
You know that relieved feeling you get when you just let go? Like as though everything's going to be okay now because you're no longer bottling up the feelings anymore. Like as though you don't have to try to be strong anymore, because it's going to be okay now.
Because someone loves you, even when you don't quite completely love yourself.
He held me until I stopped crying, and then I pulled away, strangely unembarrassed by my outburst.
"Feeling better?" he asked me, as though this was a normal occurrence and not as though he thought I was breakable.
Something inside me loosened, knowing that everything would still be the same between us—that he didn't think I was a weak baby for crying all over him.
I nodded, wiping my eyes and hiccupping with a small smile on my face. "Thank you."
"Any time."
"Shouldn't you be getting back to work?"
"…maybe."
I laughed, and it was like the sun was shining again, even though it had been hiding behind the clouds all day and still was. Well, it was shining in my head at any rate, so that should be good enough for everyone, right?
"Go on, Minato-sama! Can't avoid the paperwork forever!"
He got up with a light chuckle and ruffled my hair. He turned away, and took a few steps before turning around and looking at me solemnly.
"Under strict orders from my wife, I am obligated to inform you that, should you need it, our home is your home, and you're always welcome."
I gave him my widest, most beatific smile, and said, "Stop it Minato-sama! You're making me blush!"
He waved with a smile, turned on his heel, and disappeared in a yellow flash.
I stayed on the bench some more before deciding it was time to get up and go home; I'd wasted enough time in my own thoughts.
On my way back, someone began chasing after me. I stopped and waited for whoever it was to catch up to me, and sure enough, a panting Izumi-chan reached me, as though she'd been running a marathon.
"I've been looking everywhere for you, Akito-nee-sama!" she exclaimed after catching her breath.
"Whatever for?" I asked curiously.
"You told me to remind you."
No, please Kami-sama, not now. It's too soon! Minato-sama and Kushina-ba-chan can't—
"Tomorrow's October the tenth."
Kami-sama, please.
Not now.
I'm not ready.
I'll never be ready.
This isn't...
NO!
OMAKE
Hatake Kakashi splashed his face with water before looking at his reflection in the bathroom mirror.
Two perfectly normal eyes stared back at him, and he stood looking at it for perhaps a bit longer than was entirely healthy.
Medic-nin, thought Kakashi, were frightening creatures.
It was like he hadn't lost his left eye at all.
Three days after Team Minato had returned from their mission at the Kannabi Bridge, the medics had come forward and asked him whether he would like an eye transplant, seeing as there was no infection and his optical nerves weren't damaged too extensively.
He had thought that he would be one of those shinobi that would always have a blind spot, and he'd resigned himself to extra training to get rid of the impediment.
Yet, they'd handed him with a solution on a silver platter, and he'd agreed almost instantly.
A few days after that, someone had come forward with a perfect match for him, and that eyeball was now in his skull, ensuring that his left side wouldn't be left unguarded.
He knew for a fact that the eye belonged to a Nara. He'd asked.
He also knew that it had been the left eye of a little girl, no older than three, who'd died of lung problems.
Some days, he knew he should care about that.
Most days though, he didn't really think too deeply about the origins of his new eye.
What he did think about though, was that he'd gotten off so lucky, and there was Obito, who'd done nothing wrong (it had been Kakashi's fault, really, why was he such an idiot!?) and yet was probably going to lose both his eyes at the end of this ordeal, had only half a functioning body, and his mind wasn't exactly completely intact—
And then there was Kakashi, who looked brand new and shiny, the only relic of the mission that almost ended in the death of his then rival and now best friend being a thin but clearly visible vertical scar where his eye had been slashed.
Sometimes, Kakashi hated himself.
Other times, he could almost, almost, stand the guilt eating away at him.
But mostly, he lived.
Don't hate Mikoto too much. All will be explained next chapter. But yes, she was definitely talking about Akito.
*15th of March is the actual Japanese Harvest Festival. It worked out ridiculously well, and I'm quite pleased with this bit of trivia! I didn't even plan this and was worried about the fact that the Harvest is usually Autumn time, but once again, Japan is awesome.
*Yare yare means good grief. Katekyo Hitman Reborn has quite a few characters that say it often. Remember this one. It becomes important later.
*There isn't a specific reason as to why they're waiting till sixteen as there aren't any laws in place for this sort of thing, but in Japan, sixteen is when you can get married, so I figured that I'd use that as a reasonable cut off point. The reason there aren't any laws in place is because shinobi are considered adults the minute they tie that hitai-ate on their person, and that can be when they're as young as five (Kakashi). Plus, their life spans aren't exactly the longest. In addition, during the warring clan era, I'm assuming they didn't have laws like that because each clan had a different acceptable age for marriage, depending on each individual clan's casualty rate (if high casualty rate, then they'd want children to be born faster, meaning earlier marriages so that, even if parent dies, they have replacements within the clan and their gene pool doesn't diminish). They haven't changed that because clan matters are almost exclusively not under the main government's jurisdiction.
Also, I suppose ages of the characters are in order, ne?
Ine, Sasuke, Naruto, Gaara + rookie 9 – 0-1 years of age
Neji, Tenten, Lee – 1-2 years of age
Kankuro – 2-3 years of age
Temari – 3-4 years of age
Itachi, Hana, Koki, Izumi – 5-6 years of age
Akito, Shisui, Emiko, Daiki, Hageshī, Seki (Orphan) – 7-8 years of age
Kabuto, Kido, Yowa (Orphan), Sato Isamu – 8-9 years of age
Iruka, Mizuki – 10-11 years of age (Graduation Age)
Kakashi, Gai, Kurenai – 14 years of age
Obito, Rin, Asuma – 15 years of age
Komoto Togari – 16 years of age
Sarutobi Mariko (during death) – 19 years of age
Minato, Kushina, Mikoto – 23 years of age
Ken, Hizashi, Hiashi, Inabi, Ureshi – 25 years of age
Fugaku, Inuzuka Tsume, Akimichi Kimi – 28-29 years of age
Nonou, Chouza (before death) – 33 years of age
Hagane-sensei – 35 years of age
Teyaki – 46 years of age
Biwako – 54 years of age
Hiruzen, Danzou, Kohaku, Homura – 56 years of age
Hiroyuki, Noeki-oba-san, Obito's grandmother – 77/83/67 years of age
Madara (deceased as of 20th July) – 88 years of age
I was thinking, who do you consider the main characters of this story? Should someone be given more screentime because you feel I'm neglecting them? Everyone excited for the Kyuubi Attack? What do you think of the events in this chapter?
Also, Amore2210. Loves .Fanfic asked me to write the Ten Minute Riot from another characters' perspective. I'll do it if there's enough demand for it, and it won't actually affect the non-existent updating speed or the flow of the story so…review and let me know?
Also, I was overwhelmed with the reception of the last chapter! Thank you so much! And to think, I was actually contemplating removing the entire riot scene…:D
Edited 2/03/2017