A now it begins.
The favorite part of the day were the night walks with kaede, she enjoyed being carried on her arm on the terrace while whispering the story of our clan, about the children of the moon and how the mochizuki clan descended from them "the great villages do not know what that we are capable little girl, they underestimate us for being a small town to us and to our shinobi brothers they insult us. Getsugakure was founded in the country of the moon because a long time ago a piece of the full moon split from it and crashed on earth thus creating the country of the Moon, but the mochizuki and brother clans founded the hidden village of the moon in order to make our land prosper and protect our borders. The moon will always help us in our most needy moments as long as you believe with all your heart " . and so on several more stories.
But after a while it was not the walks she expected but the memories that evoked being under the night sky. Memories of another life.
Sleepovers Grandma's house together with my cousins, we all sat on the rooftops and told jokes and stories all night under the dark sky. My cousin Maya loved to point out the constellations and all the stories about their names in the sky. We made fun of her saying that if she continued with that enthusiasm she would become a great astrologer "look! There this Orion and there is Cassiopeia next to Andromeda" she pointed us to different places in the sky, most of the time she pretended she knew where it pointed. We also raised money together to be able to buy her a telescope that she always looked longingly at in a magazine catalog. The box was hidden under my bed waiting to be delivered as a surprise on her birthday, I hope you could find it and deliver it to her, that you enjoyed it.
Those memories plunged me into a deep sadness rarely seen in an infant of little more than a year. I don't think Kaede realized it since she was a generally quiet kid and if she did she gave no indication of it.
Some days after our walks, Kaede fell on a bench located on the terrace, and she fell into silence while she watched the moon, those nights she ended up strangely comforted and she could sleep more peacefully.
Now the only thing that bothered me were these damn baby teeth that were constantly starting to come out and irritate.
There was nothing out of the ordinary apart from Saru's medical visits, once a month.
Now that I am over a year old and I could crawl and move more freely. Now they left me on the plush floor along with some chew toys and some stuffed animals that appeared the day before I woke up, I remember that Kaede was surprised that day when she entered the room and saw my new belongings and I could guess that it had not been her doing, but after a few moments it continued as if they had always been there.
But getting back to the issue at hand, I think it was about time I ventured out of the rooms. It wasn't that it was forbidden or anything, just that I noticed that kaede was busy for most of the day and that was why our walks were at night.
I had thought that they kept me locked up but that was solved when one day after he left after attending to me I went to the sliding door and it slid smoothly, and when I poked my head down the hall I saw three figures quickly heading towards him the other side, which was enough to overwhelm me and walk back into the room to try again to bite into that damn rubber rattle that could seem to ease my tooth aches.
This day, like every morning, Kaede entered through the sliding door with a small tray (now that she was growing more, she had stopped the formula and began to digest thicker foods, which I thanked with all my heart since I was tired of the milk formulas. ). As she entered she saw that she was awake and she hurriedly put down the tray and walked over to me to begin our routine.
After cleaning and changing I settle on a small green highchair and slide the tray in front of me, apparently today's menu included a piece of bread, a small corn cake and a handful of soft oatmeal mixed with warm milk, I took the spoon and started eating while she tidied up my room.
When I finish eating, I wipe my face with a damp towel, take out the high chair to put me on the floor to bring my toys.
She gave me one last look before turning and heading to the door, but I jumped first and clenched my little fist on her long skirt.
She stopped, turned around and looked at me in surprise, as if it was the first time she had done something out of the ordinary.
She slowly bent down to my height "What's wrong little girl"
I raised my fist that was holding her skirt and pointed towards the door.
I slid her gaze to where she was pointing and saw what she pointed to, before turning her gaze back to me and gazing at me with her dark eyes. "It seems that you are already curious about yourself and want to see beyond your room and our walks" she seemed not to realize that she was talking to a baby over a year old but she did not complain to me.
I kept my gaze on her and it seemed like she was weighing her options before sighing "You're not unruly so I suppose there will be nothing wrong with you staying on the patio in front of the kitchens for a few moments, as long as you don't cause problems, besides me. save coming here every hour "
I have to admit that I did not think that she would be able to convince her to take me out of the room during the day and I did not plan to miss the opportunity.
Kaede got up and grabbed some things that she thought she would need, before bending down, picking me up with her and accommodating me on her waist, she led me to the door and closed it with one hand before turning and going to the opposite side of the hall that we always used to go to the terrace.
As we walked down the corridors, we passed several people, some of whom I noticed were wearing the bandana with a crescent carved on it.
We kept walking down the wooden corridor, and I noticed other rooms, down the busy corridor and how people entered and left them, apparently they were meeting rooms or whatever, I just wanted to go out to get some air and have kaede make me a kind tour that I planned to explore when I could get around on my own.
Kaede continued to advance before turning left and entering a huge kitchen with large windows at the back of the room, and huge clay ovens that apparently because of the pleasant aroma that came from them, something delicious was being roasted.
She made my mouth salivate and made me want to eat a nice serving of baked meat with potatoes, just like my grandmother did. Dammit.
In one corner there appeared to be large buckets containing all kinds of fruits and vegetables, in another corner, various stoves were lit steaming something.
In the center there were rectangular tables where magic happens and they finished preparing meals.
Kaede went to the back of the kitchen where the sinks were apparently due to the amount of pots, trays and pans that were accumulating there.
We went out to a patio surrounded by trees, the ground covered with rustic grass and the sun was shining slightly on my face and a warm feeling filled me.
Kaede went to a place under the shade of the trees in front of the large windows in the kitchen, she put a thick blanket on the grass and left me on it.
Observe my new surroundings, before looking at the older woman who was watching me carefully before saying "I'll be looking from the kitchen girl" before turning and heading towards the kitchens, I watched her figure disappear and I think that to be an old woman she moved pretty fast.
I sat looking around my new environment, maybe you think that this was my time to get up and try to escape as far away from the forest as possible, but who the hell am I kidding, I preferred to continue under the care of kaede before losing myself from night in a cold and harsh forest. Also if I want to live I must develop some skills such as walking and running effectively.
Now that I was finally alone I leaned back and began to observe the sky covered by trees quietly, And I fell asleep immediately.
The new routine we established with Kaede was that now instead of spending the whole afternoon in the room doing nothing, I spent it in the patio doing exactly nothing. This seemed to please my caregiver since now I didn't have to go through all of them at every hour of the day, but instead I was in front of her at all times while she worked in the kitchen and I seemed to enjoy the outdoors.
The months became more bearable and the night had begun to walk practicing with her on the terrace and sometimes in the kitchens together with other women who encouraged me whenever I took small steps.
I think it was the first time I saw Kaede smile.
Very soon kaede realized that I was terribly bored and began to teach me to speak, we would sit together at lunch and she pointed to objects while she repeated it slowly and until she was satisfied that she pronounced it correctly we did not advance to the next object and sometimes it was quite difficult to please the older woman.
The good thing was that she knew I was of few words and she left me alone most of the time. We were still taking our night walks and she recited stories to me like when she was a baby.
What did not amuse me much was the presence that she observed me from the shadows when sleeping, which I could confirm that there were two of them, sometimes it was a man and other times a woman. I know I'm not crazy because when I turned to the presence, it disappeared as if it had never been there. It will be the night watchman I hope and not Freddy Krugger.
She was sitting in my usual place in front of the kitchen window, after having lunch, with some new toys that had suddenly appeared in my room in the morning. The more things entertain me the better. But after a while I got tired and settled on the blanket looking at the wooded sky and took my morning nap.
I honestly would have slept all afternoon if it weren't for the fucking murmur that woke me up in a bad mood from my exquisite nap.
"I swear to you that if I had not seen it I would not believe it in any way" insisted a boy.
"And I can't believe how damn you got up there and left without being noticed, takeshi, I don't even understand why you got close" now a woman spoke and from the tone I could guess that she was quite upset.
"What can I say, I'm that great, also don't tell me you care about my akiko" he mocked "also subaru-sama himself entrusted it to me, to collect information about what happens outside our borders." I finish serious. "But going back to the important thing, do you want me to tell you what I found out or not?"
"We are teammates idiot of course I care about you and of course I want you to tell me, now shoot"
"A genin from Konoha defeated four of Kiri's seven Swordsmen, apparently rescuing his son along with his teammates who were about to be turned into ground mush by Kiri's."
"Wait a second, you said a genin who was rescuing his son and his teammates from Kiri's fucking seven" she said incredulously "how old are they?"
"I think the father could never ascend beyond genin in his entire life and the children not long ago seemed to have left the academy, honestly what I was wondering was where his sensei was"
"Konoha barely has the numbers so he allied with Kusa and to further increase the numbers of him they send recently graduated genin to the front, I'm surprised that the old hokage didn't enlist himself to the front before sending children"
"Returning to the topic, this genin after making sure that the children fled, managed to open the internal doors, managed to finish off four of them before being completely destroyed akiko, you should have seen the state he was in when he finished, if he hadn't been so focused on hiding my presence I would have vomited all over the floor, the other three who survived tore him completely apart "he finished sick.
"This must be a huge blow for Kiri, I imagine, losing four of her great assets like this" It seemed that she felt no pity at all.
"You wouldn't completely believe it, since the new bearers are even more bloodthirsty than the previous ones, one thinks that Kiri seized the opportunity and introduced a new generation of bloodier swordsmen."
I admit, I've been eavesdropping for a while. It seems that the one who died was Father Might Guy, whatever his name I don't remember. In the story they never showed the fight, which is a shame since my cousin Louis always complained about how unfair he was. I heard about the legendary fight and how he had scared away those who were left alive, it seems that it was the survivors who killed him if what the boy said is true. I do not really care. It seemed that the boy had not finished speaking.
"If you think that's strong you must have seen the bloody battle on Kannabi Bridge"
This set off alarms in my mind.
"Yes kugisahi sensei, he told me about it, he said that Iwa and Konoha put on a great show there"
"That is not enough to say, there was one of them, when he killed several more shinobi of the stone, the Yellow Flash say his name is"
"I also heard that, it seems that Konoha is not as adrift as it seems"
"A single man does not change the akiko situation and that does not change where they choose their battlefields for their confrontations, as long as the war continues to occur, the small villages will remain defenseless before their attacks, look at Kusa who despite being safe allies of Konoha almost It ended up destroyed after the battle on the Kannabi Bridge. "
That means Obito Uchiha is already in the hands of the real Madara. A shame. I think Kakashi will also have the sharingan of his undead friend of his, another pity.
The voices were heard closer and closer so I returned to my place on the ground and pretended to sleep as they approached. One of the presences approached and I could deduce that she was the woman, she crouched in front of me.
"Look what we have here, a girl from moon" she turned back and called "TAKESHI, I HAVE ONE OF YOURS HERE" Now with that I have no choice but to open my eyes.
A nice blonde hair full of waves is what I saw first, then some beautiful blue eyes with a wavy face and pale skin, the typical bandana with the crescent on its neck, it looks like an incarnation of Cara Delevingne but more deadly, her looked He didn't exactly convey serenity, especially with that sword dangling from his hip.
Behind her the boy approached and it was a contrast to the girl in front of me, I could tell that it was a Mochizuki, with that silver lock on his dark hair and brown skin, his band hung on his forehead, they must not be more than eighteen years, but this boy had uneven eyes, one dark and one gray and now I know why he was so well known to me, he was the one who gave me to Kaede after Subaru gave me to him. And from the look he gave me he could tell that he had done it too.
Kaede, attracted by the screams, had also come out of the kitchen to see what was happening. And seeing who it was, I cast a jaded look, "Don't you get tired of bothering children? I'm surprised Kazuma isn't around, he usually finds all three of them together causing problems," he said as he approached us. I decided that the best thing in this situation was to keep quiet.
"You hurt me in the depths of my heart, dear Kaede, where was the adorable old woman who prepared us sandwiches after training" Said the girl named Akiko, as she placed a hand on her heart melodramatically.
"She died the day you three ingrates set my beloved kitchen on fire, trying to bake her sensei cake."
"Uh, you have us there, but admit that you still love us in the depths of your heart" said the boy
"You don't speak Takeshi, I still remember how they almost killed each other in that exhaustive training of yours"
"But you still stayed by my side, taking care of us"
"I only know that they are idiots and that they are bothering a poor girl for her nap, now come into my kitchen if you want to get something to eat"
Akiko looked like she was about to cry dramatically "You always know what to do to cheer up my dry heart, if only my mother was more like you, I think she would prefer that I stay inside all day learning the rules of the Hisuru Clan" Be clean a fake tear.
"Inside before I regret it" and with that the three began to enter the kitchens, but before entering the boy he turned and looked at me with his uneven eyes, a look that I held since it seems that he is trying to solve a riddle before shaking his head and entering.
After making sure that he was alone I lay down again and massaged my temples at the information I received secretly.
It seems that the game has just begun.