"The truth will disappear with me."
Nagi watch Itachi approach Kurenai who's talking with who she thinks may be Genma.
She hold up a hand to her head.
It's the story. Speaking it all aloud, digging them up to the surface, brings with it more memories, previously thought to have been forgotten.
And not just from the franchise. From that life too.
Nagi had a friend, a younger girl who lives next door.
About ten years younger, which made it odd to call her a friend, but that was honestly what she had been to her. Well, Nagi says 'her' but she can't even recall her gender in the past life.
She could have been a man just as likely as she could have been a woman. Just like how Hyuuga Hizashi could've had a son just as well as he had a daughter.
But the little girl, she was very important to the her before. She remembers a pair of braided black hair and yellow dresses, a stained towel always carrying various rocks and sticks inside. Sometimes even dead bugs and in that one occasion, a dead frog.
That little girl's father threw it away so callously, Nagi remembers thinking. As if he himself don't recall being a kid and all these little things having been worth so much to a child.
... Nagi hasn't been exploiting her youth, has she?
She feels like she's wasting something precious.
But at the same time, if she indulged in it, she'll still feel as if she's wasting time to be stronger. There's no way to win.
"Nagi, are you alright?"
She startles.
She's in a seafood restaurant -Hana harassed Kabuto into choosing-, sitting with three nine year olds.
Though Kabuto may be ten.
"Yes. Yes, I am. I was just... watching something."
"Alright. But isn't it amazing, Kabuto is just like you." Izumi tells her from across the table. Kabuto is beside the Uchiha and across Hana.
"Me?"
"Yeah. He's actually already done with the medical course, he's even teaching Hana's class as the assistant. He'll get his headband this year too, once he pass the graduation exam."
"Oh. Wait, then shouldn't Hana be calling him sensei?" That's the right thing to do.
Kabuto smirk at the said girl, "Exactly."
"But I don't want to. He's the same age as me and whenever I do, he's so annoying!" Hana complains and mocks a puffed chest and pushing up an imaginary glasses.
Kabuto flush.
Well of course a ten year old will be proud of such accomplishment. It's not as simple as swinging a hand and running a blade through someone's neck. He can heal people, connecting nerves and ligaments and restarting the heart.
One can kill someone without prior experience, can even do it accidentally. The same can't go for healing.
Blood on yellow dress, skinned knee, and stuttering sobs.
Nagi might have attempted her hand at healing but Hyuuga chakra's natural inclination, and her own particularly strong kekkei genkai, prevents her from doing so.
The waiter brings them their order.
XxXxXx
"Nagi-neesama!"
"Hinata-sama, what are you doing in the branch compound?" Nagi asks her gently.
Hinata poke her fingers together, "I w-was waiting for N-Nagi-neesama."
"I see. Is there something you need?"
Hinata stiffen.
There's a long silence and the younger girl look at the floor.
"I... n-no. Just... sorry, for bothering Nee-sama." She gives a quick bow -too low for being the clan heiress- and turns to run, tiny feet padding almost silently on the wooden floor
Nagi watch her.
She sigh to herself. The girl's four.
There's no reason to make it harder for her, it's obvious what she wants.
Nagi look at her door, where Hinata had been standing, waiting for her, "Do you want to come in, Hinata-sama? Tokuma-nii seemed to have left some mochi in my kitchen."
Hinata stop by the corner. She nods silently, a small smile blooming on her face.
Nagi deactivate her Byakugan because she doesn't want to watch her family watch them.
She lead her into the living room, tells her to wait on the sofa, and goes to the kitchen to fetch the mochi on the table Tokuma must've left for her to enjoy when she comes back. After a moment of hesitation, she goes to her room to fetch her notes from kunoichi class, bringing it with her to Hinata. She set the mochi in the space between them, on the sofa neither can reach if they weren't ninja children.
Nagi still doesn't know how to interact with Hinata. Every time they meet, especially when they make attempts to talk to each other, she tires herself out racking her head for conversation starters and appropriate replies. Their relationship doesn't come naturally to her.
If it continues like this, people might mistake it as her hating the main family.
She lay out her notebook on her lap and point at her acceptable, if sub-par, drawings of flowers. Memory and sketching practice.
"It's an iris, and it means faith, hope, wisdom. Trust. Valor. You can find it everywhere in the Fire country."
Hinata gaze at her with wide eyes.
"... What is this?" She points at the next illustration.
"It's carnation..."
XxXxXx
"Okaa-san wants me to bring you home."
-Who?-
Itachi glance at Yoji, eyebrows furrowing, "The both of you. My teammates... And sensei too, I guess. If you have the time."
That's not much of an invitation
"When?" Nagi ask, pulling out her kunai from the ground.
"She didn't say. But as soon as possible."
It's rude to come by without bringing along something, "I'm free tomorrow, Itachi-sama."
Itachi turns to her, "Don't call me that in front of okaa-san."
"... Okay." Nagi twirl the kunai between her fingers, "Itachi-san."
He nods, smiling faintly, "Call me that from now on, don't bother going back to the '-sama'."
She suppose '-sama' has been rather alienating for a teammate.
She nod.
Sensei speaks up from the edge of the clearing, "I'll be too busy, so too bad I can't drop by."
Itachi seems to have absolutely no problem with that.
Sometimes, she does itch to ask what their issue is, but that's not Nagi's place. Sidling up to her other teammate, she hand him his shuriken, "Yoji-san, let's go together to buy a gift."
-Affirmative-
The team split up to their respective appointments, and Nagi walks into downtown with the Aburame.
"What do you think will be nice? Itachi-sam- san, also has an otouto. Yoji-san, this is my first time being invited to someone else's house," with prior warning, "Will it be better to buy one gift for everyone or one gift for the family then a separate gift for Itachi-san's otouto?"
The boy visibly wavers, -I don't know.-
"Oh, I see. Well, better safe than sorry. I'll buy one for each. What about you, Yoji-san?"
-Same.-