Tale of the Setting Sun
Chapter 25: "Floating Dead Leaves"
Mayu had never really stood out, but when she passed the exam for the Academy, her mother bought her a bag that she had been pining over for the past few months—a bright blue, fluffy ball-shaped one.
Her big brother Izumo gave her the Look when he saw her wearing it for the first time. "Mayu... I don't know how to break this to you, but you're going to be made fun of."
Mayu stuck her tongue out at him and ran to school where she found out that her brother, like always, was one hundred percent correct. As soon as the teacher left the lecture hall, some of the other children gathered around her and ripped the bag off her back.
"What is this? You call yourself a ninja?"
"Ha! I say it's perfect. An ugly bag for an ugly girl!"
They began to throw it back and forth amongst each other, and when she grabbed for it, they threw it on the ground. Feeling bewildered and overwhelmed, amidst their laughter, she felt her eyes grow hot with tears. She had wanted to be noticed, but now she wished they would leave her alone.
Suddenly, she felt a shadow on her face. Looking up, she saw a dark-haired boy staring down at her—Rai.
Mayu knew him, of course. He was in her class, and unlike her, he had a lot of friends. His older brother Kotetsu was also Izumo's best friend. Kotetsu brought him along sometimes, but the most they'd done was silently sit in opposite ends of the sandbox while their brothers talked.
Rai scowled at her, and for a second she thought he would yell at her. He picked up her bag, and she flinched—but then, he slung it over his back.
"Real ninja can wear anything," he told the stunned children.
It was the best day of her life—the day when she made her first friend.
The worst day of her life followed shortly afterwards.
It began when Mayu found herself hiding from her brother in a shrub, right under the kitchen window.
"Mayu!" She heard Izumo yell out, as he stormed into the kitchen.
A dry leaf poked uncomfortably into her cheek, but she dared not move; Izumo was a lot older than her and a chūnin. He would find her right away if she made a single sound. But over the years, Mayu had gotten quite adept at avoiding detection by her brother, a fact that both pleased and infuriated him.
"Mother, have you seen Mayu?"
"What is it now?" She heard their mother laugh.
Hearing her ringing laugh brought a smile to Mayu's face. Their mother was the nicest person in the village, and made the best cakes to boot. Her mother was baking one now, and the smell of the crispy apple filling made her salivate.
"She skipped going to the Academy today again!" Izumo complained. "It reflects badly on me that my own sister is like this, you know."
"I'd say it's healthier for a child to be running around, having fun than to be sitting in a classroom learning how to kill people," their mother said in a mild tone.
She could practically hear Izumo roll his eyes. "Oh, not this again."
Their mother did not approve of Mayu attending the Academy. Though she'd never said why, Izumo had told Mayu it was because their father had died years ago in battle. Izumo on the other hand, wanted her to at least learn the basics of defending herself. There had been a big fight over it, she remembered. But Izumo won in the end, and she'd had to start attending the Academy.
On the bright side, Rai was there, so it wasn't so bad. But it was so boring. Mayu didn't care about learning how to set traps or throwing a shuriken with perfect precision. She would much rather run around the village with Rai, listening to all the merchants' stories at the market, looking at the clouds in the sky, and watching birds eat bread crumbs from her hands.
There was a light slapping sound.
"No, don't eat it," their mother said.
"What? Why not?" Izumo whined.
"It's not for you."
"Then who? It's not someone's birthday is it?" There was a small pause. "...you don't mean you're making a cake for that thing, are you?"
Mayu's ears perked up. What thing was this?
Their mother said quietly, "And what if I am?"
"I thought..." Izumo hesitated. "I thought we had agreed that you were going to keep your distance from it. I don't even understand why Hokage-sama's put you up to this, he knows it's because of that thing that father – "
"I have raised that child for the past three years," said their mother. "And I have kept my distance. But the more I see him, the more I realize that he doesn't understand anything. He doesn't know anything. He's only a child, like Mayu."
At the mention of her name, Mayu gulped and uttered a silent prayer that she would never be caught eavesdropping.
"How could you say that?" Izumo sounded angry. "Have you even seen what that thing looks like? It's not a human, it's the damn fox itself!"
"That's just the Uzumaki clan trait and you know it, Izumo. It's Naruto's sixth birthday tomorrow, and he's never even had a cake, so heavens help me, I am making him one. And that's final."
Of course, after all that, Mayu had to see the boy for herself.
The other kids jeered about him sometimes, but she'd never met him before. However, he wasn't hard to find; she soon caught his face peeking out of an apartment window by the market. He was the complete opposite of Mayu—easy to single out, with his bright red hair and unique facial markings.
She waved up at him. "Hi there!" Immediately, his face disappeared from view. She frowned, and tried again. "Do you want to play hide-and-seek?"
There was no response, and she was about to give up, when she heard a small voice.
"...I don't know how to."
What a weird kid, she thought.
"That's okay, I'll teach you," she said. "I'm Mayu. What's your name?"
"...Naruto."
It was a bright sunny day out, but for some reason, Naruto seemed reluctant to leave his apartment. Nonetheless, with some coaxing, Mayu was leading him towards the park when they ran into Rai, who was throwing shuriken at a homemade target.
Looking curious, he wandered over. "What're you doing? And who's that?"
"This is the boy my mom's taking care of." She gestured back at Naruto. "Come on, say hello."
"H-hello..."
"Hold on, I know him." Rai peered at Naruto, who shrank backwards. "Yeah...he's the one Kayumo's mom told us to stay away from."
"Really? Why?"
Rai shrugged. "I dunno. She got mad at Kayumo for letting him join our game of tag."
"Why would she? He's just a kid like us." Mayu smiled encouragingly down at Naruto. "Right?"
At first the boy didn't respond, and she was about to turn around and call it quits—when his whiskered face broke out into a small smile.
How cute, she thought.
She couldn't have been more wrong.
It all happened so suddenly. One moment, she was pulling Naruto by the hand, and the next, they were surrounded by a group of armed figures. They didn't wear the hitai-ate of any villages—they were rogue ninja.
Mayu wished she had paid more attention at the Academy, but it was too late for that. She was helpless, and was soon immobilized. Though Rai put up more of a fight, trying to fight back with his shuriken, even he couldn't do anything. One of the rogues threw a kunai at him, and Rai let out a howl of pain as it struck his cheek in a splash of blood. Another rogue hit the back of his head, and then Rai was on the ground, unmoving.
Now, they were somewhere underground, below the village—the sewers. She knew some of the older kids sometimes sneaked in there, but she hadn't dared to…until now. They'd never mentioned how suffocating it was, being surrounded on all four sides with no windows or doors. There was only darkness, the dirty smell of sewage, and the sound of running water.
Mayu had never been so scared in her life. The narrow walls of the tunnel around her seemed like they were shrinking around her, and she couldn't breathe. Her heart was pounding so hard in her chest, it hurt.
All of a sudden, the rogue who was holding Mayu stopped. There was sweat on his hands, and it seeped into her mouth.
"They're coming."
The warning came not a moment too soon, as three dark figures swooped down from the ceiling. They wore animal masks—the ANBU. The rogues around her drew their weapons, and immediately engaged them.
Amidst the clanging and screaming of metal of meeting metal, Mayu felt a flicker of hope. She didn't know much about the mysterious masked ninja, but they were reputed as some of the best in the village. Surely, she thought, they were safe now.
"Stop!" The rogue holding Mayu cried out. Something cold and sharp touched her neck. "If you don't, I'll kill her here and now."
All three ANBU froze.
"Mayu!" One of them shouted.
It took a moment for her to recognize the voice behind the mask—it was her mother. Then, knowing that, she could no longer hold back the tears.
"Mom!" She struggled to free herself, but the man's grip was too strong.
"Your daughter? Lucky us. How's this for a trade then? You let us go with the jinchūriki, and we give you these two other kids back."
There was a pause.
"Very well," said a male ANBU's voice.
The bruising hold on Mayu slackened, and the other rogues began to retreat, taking Naruto's limp body with them. Tears and slime streaming down her face, Mayu ran into her mother's tight embrace.
For a moment, all was well. She could hear her mother breathing in her ear, and she breathed back in hers.
One of the ANBU stepped up to them, sounding worried. "What're we going to tell Hokage-sama?"
"That we were unable to rescue the jinchūriki," said the male. "This is our chance to get rid of that thing. We'll be lucky if they kill it."
Mayu wished with all her heart that she could get out of that horrible dark tunnel. She wanted to sleep in her mother's arms that night and forget that this had all ever happened. But she couldn't stop thinking about how Naruto had smiled up at her.
"What...what about Naruto?" she said in a small voice.
Her mother's hold on her body tightened. Mayu felt her heart beating rapidly against hers. And then her mother pulled away and stood up.
"I'm going after them."
"What are you talking about?" The male ANBU sounded confused. "You, of all people? This is what you've always wanted. Just leave the creature."
Her mother shook her head—and looked straight at Mayu. "What kind of ninja are we, if we abandon a child here?"
The male ANBU scoffed. "He's a monster!"
Her mother didn't say anything. Instead, she drew her sword, and then she was gone, swallowed up in the darkness of the tunnel.
Mayu was never sure about what happened next.
The other ANBU took Rai and left, but Mayu refused to leave without her mother. The male ANBU was on the verge of dragging her out of the tunnel, when he suddenly froze. She wondered what had happened—when it hit her, like a wave. She'd never felt chakra like this before. It was the most overwhelming, terrible thing she'd ever felt. It choked her, it covered her.
And then she saw him.
It was Naruto. He was coming back, alone. But there was something strange about him. There was a bright red shroud covering his entire body, and he walked on all fours like an animal.
Mayu hesitated. "Naruto...?"
The male ANBU shouted, "Get away from him! He'll kill you!"
She flinched back, and the male ANBU raced forward, holding his sword before him. He was going to kill Naruto—but then, faster than she could follow, a blur of red jumped into the air. There was a loud, terrible cracking sound, and she realized with a jolt that Naruto had bit into and broken the ANBU's neck. The man gurgled, his hands grasping belatedly at his ragged neck. His body twitched a few times, before slumping down.
The thing landed back in the water with a splash. Letting out a sob, Mayu tried to step back, but fell over instead.
It was drawing closer. The red shroud around its body swung back and forth like a tail. There was something dark dripping off of its face—it was the ANBU's blood.
"Where's my mom?" she cried. "What did you do?"
It was right before her now, and she could see its red, slit eyes. It looked at her, and she looked at it and she knew in her heart that she was looking in the face of a monster.
Something heavy struck her in the head and she felt herself fall over. She could hear muffled shouting in the distance. Her body was sinking into something warm and thick. And then everything turned black.
When Mayu opened her eyes again, her mother was dead, and her entire world had changed.
Rai couldn't remember anything. Having been knocked out, he'd missed the entire thing. The only indication that something had ever happened to him was a long, ropy scar on his face.
Ironically enough, Mayu escaped the incident physically unscathed. During her short stay in the hospital, she found herself surrounded by members of the Intelligence Division who asked her questions after questions. She didn't say much, only responding that she couldn't remember what had happened, until the Hokage himself came to her room and made them leave.
The day she was discharged, when she arrived at her house door, she stopped and knocked. Nobody answered, and after a while, she let herself in. Izumo wasn't there; she hadn't seen her brother since he'd visited her, red-eyed, in the hospital. The only thing left in the house was a stale cake.
It rained for days afterward, as though the skies themselves were crying. But Mayu couldn't cry anymore. The whole world had turned grey, and she didn't shed a single tear.
Years passed in that way.
Izumo stopped coming home, using his work as an excuse. It rained, and rained.
Eventually, Mayu graduated from the Academy. She was placed in the same team as the monster, and she knew that she was being punished by the heavens.
Their jōnin sensei gave them a test, and Mayu would have been content to fail if it meant she wouldn't have to be around the monster anymore. But the monster brought to her and Rai a plan, and it worked.
Their team began going on missions. Even though Mayu often lost her concentration in the monster's presence, it never lost its patience with her. It was intelligent and strong, and sometimes, she had to stop herself from admiring it.
One day, on a bodyguard mission, the monster killed several bandit men. It was expressionless about it, its face dripping with blood. Mayu had expected as much. Later that night, she passed by its wagon and heard a sound. Pulling out her kunai, she went inside—and saw the monster shaking in its sleep. It was having a nightmare. Its face looked younger than usual, more vulnerable.
Mayu wasn't so weak, however. She didn't let it deceive her.
But soon afterwards, the monster had to go and save someone. A young civilian boy. Without any regard for itself, the monster jumped in front of the boy and was hit by a shard of metal. It would have died, if it had been normal.
It turned out that Kakashi-sensei knew about the monster as well. He told her about how the monster was something called a jinchūriki and how a tailed beast had been sealed inside it as a baby.
That night, Mayu knelt by the monster's side. She could tell it was awake, and she heard their breathing synchronize in the darkness. She looked at its face for a long time. She held its hand, and she decided to give into the deception.
Things got easier after that.
It became he. The monster became Naruto.
She stopped flinching every time Naruto was near her. When Naruto praised her, she began to feel proud, and when he seemed disappointed in her, she trained harder. She started wondering about how Naruto was eating. She baked him a birthday cake, and she could tell that he didn't like it, but he ate it all without a word of complaint.
And then one evening, she found herself sitting at Ramen Ichiraku with the others. Kakashi-sensei was reading his adult books. She and Rai weren't arguing for once, and the three of them were digging into their bowls. Mayu finished first, and when she looked up, she caught sight of Naruto smiling faintly into his ramen.
Her chest throbbed.
Ichiraku buzzed with the sound of customers, and the store's glowing lanterns bobbed in the night breeze. The rich smell of miso ramen wafted out through the hanging flaps. Something wet and hot dripped down her face.
The world wasn't so grey after all, she thought.
As always, Rai was the first to notice.
They had reached the last of the trees, and the seemingly endless marshlands spread out before them. The others had already landed on the marsh ground, and right as Naruto was about to jump down, he saw Rai come to a screeching stop.
"Wait!" he cried out.
And then Naruto saw it—a blue feather, floating down through the air. When he reached out for it with his hand, the moment it touched his palm, a sudden influx of images rushed into his mind's eye.
The sound of wings flapped in the air above him, and he looked up just in time to see a bluebird soaring past the treetops, into the sky.
He blinked, and then it was gone.
A/N: Well I know a lot of you don't like the OCs but I've been building up to this backstory for so long so screw it. Anyways this arc should be wrapped up within one or two more chapters.
There's some glitch with FFN so I can't respond to anything right now, but thanks for the reviews.