Hello again, my loyal readers! Welcome back to another chapter of A Spark of Hope! Thank you for waiting for so long.
I'm so sorry for posting this chapter this late, like a month or so? If you don't know, a lot of things have happened in the past few weeks. I finished my thesis with my partner, I completed all my subjects, I very nearly got Cum Laude (I was off by just 0.02 in my GWA, which was the fault of the one of my subjects this past semester, Water Resources Engineering, where our professor did RANDOM NUMBER GENERATOR for our grades and I (with *the* worst luck) got the lowest possible passing grade through no fault of my own :/), I had my graduation picture taking, and most importantly, I graduated a few days ago. BS Civil Engineering from the University of the Philippines Diliman.
Now, I'll take the boards next year (or whenever the pandemic will be on the downturn in Mega Manila) and hopefully I'll be an engineer soon. Until then, I can spend a lot more time writing. So YAY! ^_^
But enough of the life update! I truly hope you all enjoy this chapter! It might be... emotional ;)
Chapter 4: Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again
The singing of the brown maya sparrows and the whistling of black-naped orioles sounded from the tops of electric posts and their insulated lines, which hung over and crisscrossed the bustling, busy streets of Konoha's center. The steel-and-glass office skyscrapers, the ever-expanding shopping center complexes, and the sprawling university campus, starkly contrasted with the Hokage Mansion, the Hokage Rock, and the old marketplace. The marketplace had been rebuilt with modern planning and materials, with more advanced fireproofing and water supply lines and wider pathways, yet in many ways retained its old charms.
Thick white clouds, which were like large puffy islands in their lighter-blue ocean of the sky, moved overhead and bore the light and heat of the sun above. They darkened the city by only a little bit, but it made strolling outside in the afternoon heat more bearable for Boruto, Sarada, Wasabi, and Namida. The four of them passed through one of the entrances of Senju Park on the west side, with Wasabi telling them that it's a shortcut to their apartment in the southeast.
They walked along the paved path of durable diorite cobblestone and loose gravel pebbles, which separated the black and white stones from the grass at the sides. Wasabi and Namida walked in the front, their hands clasped and their fingers interlocked, while Sarada followed close behind them, and Boruto trailed a couple of paces behind her.
As they neared the shore of the lake in the public park, Wasabi asked Sarada, "Do you know who else will go to Rem Fortress this time round? It's a week and two days from now."
Sarada replied, "For this year's battle anniversary?" Wasabi nodded and reached around, wrapping her arm around Sarada and pulling the Uchiha beside her.
"Aside from the three of us," Sarada continued, "I'm not sure who else of our friends are going to the commemoration, though we can ask them tonight. As for the adults, I'm sure about Lord Seventh, Konohamaru-sensei, Hanabi-sensei, and Sai-sensei. Dad will probably go too, now that he's back."
Wasabi asked further, "What about Aunt Sakura? Is she going this time too?"
"That's harder to say. She was able to go last year, but she's not sure if the hospital and her schedule will allow her this year. For now, maybe?"
"Moegi-sensei and Team 10 went last year too," Namida jogged her memory, "and so did Enko, if I remember correctly? On the other hand, Iwabe, Houki, and Hako went two years ago."
Wasabi said, "I think it's only Denki who hasn't gone back yet."
Sarada pointed out, "He's been busy, giving lectures to his physics classes, being a professor and researcher and all. But when we met with him a while ago, he said he wants to go this time."
"Ohh that's right, you two mentioned something a while ago about seeing Denki?"
"We met up with him before we listened to your speech. We needed to give him some data that needs for his research. We'll tell you more about it later, when we get to your apartment."
Wasabi nodded to Sarada's reply. "Well, I know that Gengania and the rest of the girls are thinking about going this year. They're free because it'll be Saturday and all, and their midterms will be done by then…"
A cool rush of air blew to the east, making their hair shift and fly leftwards, and blowing the grass on the green fields of the park in the same general direction. The wind brought with it the pleasant scent of the lake, with tiny waves rippling across the clear, pristine water. And as the four friends passed by a patch of flowers near a thick grove of trees along the path, a flying leaf caught Boruto's eye.
It was a dark violet leaf from one of the royal purples among the flowers. It flew with the wind in front of him, almost at his eye level and only a few inches away, and so he slowed down to look at it. It flew on until it started to fall and tumble in the air, and then it settled down at the foot of a large statue, a statue that was only a meter shorter than the batch of trees that surrounded it.
And when he saw it, Boruto stopped entirely.
In front of him stood the unmistakable marble statue of Sumire. It looked to him to be about twenty feet high, and it felt to him to be only a stone's throw away from the place they first clashed, as well as the place that Nue was first summoned in its largest form to destroy Konoha, near the center of Senju Park.
The statue of Sumire depicted Sumire with her long hair down instead of its usual braided appearance, with her facial expression a mix of fierce yet gentle yet resolute, with her chakra saber and automatic pistol both holstered at the sides of her hips and the sniper rifle she owned for a month slung around her back and shoulder. Her right hand reached out forwards, mimicking the shape of a gun, with her signature water bullet seemingly coming out from the marble fingertips, while her left hand, which was at her bosom, showing a sign of reconciliation.
There was even a far tinier statue of Nue, which stood at her feet. It was an exact scale replica that depicted it in its smallest form, with its cute growling face and roundish body its long dark chakra tails. Boruto silently noted that it looked a lot like the picture Denki had showed him a few hours ago, the one ostensibly of Nue alive and thriving in the cold harsh biome of Mount Tirad, although the picture did not show dark chakra tails, but rather just the one fanged tail Nue was most known for.
The base of Sumire's statue had dozens of bouquets of flowers piled and stacked on the steps and pedestal, with some of the flowers having fallen to the side of the paved walkway and the grass beside the trees, which give the statue some shelter from rain and sunshine.
Boruto found himself staring at the statue for what felt to be the longest time. He walked to the statue, along the path that branched out from the main paved walkway that they were walking on. When he got to its base, he knelt down and read the rose gold plaque at her feet.
SUMIRE KAKEI
A Heroine of Konoha
June 12, 90 CE – July 7, 106 CE
"In honor of Sumire Kakei, the heroine of Mount Tirad, one of the thirty-three shinobi, kunoichi, and friends, who fought valiantly during the Battle of the Hod and Feres Passes."
He wiped the plaque to clean a little dust that had gotten stuck. At that moment, he felt the emotions welling up inside of him, making his chest tense up. He closed his eyes, bit his lip, and took a deep breath to stop himself from shedding tears, though he had already shed so many tears for her over the past three years.
Then he heard the sound of approaching footsteps behind him. He stood up, expecting Sarada and Wasabi and Namida.
He heard her voice instead.
"…Boruto-kun…"
It was that voice, familiar and warm and graceful, gentle and sweet and loving. It was the one voice that was able to calm him down in a couple of heartbeats.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?"
Boruto glanced to his right. He saw Sumire beside him, her purple hair in their usual braids, her deep violet eyes looking at him, then looking to the statue of her in front of them. Her white skin was not pale or faint or translucent as a ghost's would be, and she was surely not some cold specter, since he felt her distinct warmth and aura intermingling with his.
He didn't feel any bit of shock or surprise, as he was used to seeing her and hearing her beside him. He enjoyed having his own vision or version of her with him, even if he knew in his heart that she wasn't physically or actually there by his side.
"Yeah…" He smiled. "It really is, you know?"
Perhaps, in Boruto's mind, he had already accepted that there was absolutely no way he could be classified as fully sane. But at least he could still see her, hear her, feel her, think of her, remember her, and speak to her. At least she was still there with him, in his mind and in his heart.
And he wouldn't have it any other way.
"I'm surprised they'd make a statue for me," Sumire admitted. She picked up one of the bouquets, a bunch of purple lilies and pinkish-violet sopherias that had been set upon the pedestal. "I thought I'd be like so many other people who never got their recognition, or worse, ended up vilified instead of praised as heroes, or even worse, forgotten entirely by history." She turned to Boruto. "I thought I'd fall into one of those categories."
"We would never allow that," Boruto assured her. "You're not going to be forgotten. That's impossible now. This city loves you now. Most of our people adore you now." He pointed at the literally larger-than-life marble figure in front of them. "Namida told me that this statue is just one of many tributes to you here. You even have an entire mural in the Konoha Art Museum dedicated to you!"
"Really now? Oh, how I'd love to see those too…" She hugged the bouquet of violet, taking in the sweet floral scent of the violet flowers. "But in the end," she continued, "I'm just glad I was surrounded by such amazing people. My friends, my true family, what matters most to me… The people I love, you guys."
Boruto sighed and looked down and away, in shame and regret. "You should be standing here…"
She returned the purple bouquet in its former place, exactly the way it was before she picked it up. She then closed the gap between them and lifted Boruto's chin up. She gazed tenderly at his scarred right eye. "I am…"
In the silence that followed, they looked at each other, their eyes interlocked and unwilling to budge or shift away. The smile returned to Boruto's face, even for a brief moment.
"Boruto…"
The blonde shinobi snapped to attention, his name being called by other voices, voices he also knew well. He looked left and saw Sarada, Wasabi, and Namida walking towards him. He then turned back and saw that Sumire was no longer there in front of him. The bunch of flowers, the same one he saw her hold and hug, was in its original place, as if it was never touched, or if Sumire had really returned it as he remembered seeing.
He closed his eyes and gently rubbed them. Again, he didn't really know if the things he saw were real, but he didn't really care either way.
"We noticed that you weren't with us anymore," Sarada told him, placing her hand on his shoulder. "We figured you saw her monument." She walked on ahead and placed her hand on one of the sandals of Sumire's statue, caressing the smooth marble foot.
"Hi Sumi," she looked upwards to the pretty stone face and uttered, "I… I miss you… so much…"
"Hey there Sumire," Wasabi and Namida echoed simultaneously. Wasabi then continued, "We'll be there at Mount Tirad again soon, in nine days! It won't be too long now…"
Namida followed. "I'm still here, wishing you were somehow here again, wishing I could hear your voice again, wishing I could talk with you and share memories with you again…"
Meanwhile, Boruto turned to Sarada and asked, "Why did she do it?"
"Umm…" Sarada knew she did not want to answer his question, but she also felt it was wrong to keep it from him. After a few seconds, she decided upon her reply. "I promise, I'll explain everything when we're back at the Rem Fortress for the commemoration. You'll understand."
"But why?"
"It'll be the most apt time and place for it. Today definitely isn't the time for the mourning. It's for celebrating that you've come back. Not to mention, it's next week, so it won't be too long of a wait."
"I promise you," she added, "it'll be for the best."
Boruto grunted, clearly unsatisfied. He asked Wasabi and Namida the same thing. "Can either of you tell me anything about it?"
Wasabi's eyes wandered back and forth, from Namida to Sarada to Boruto. With a sigh, she relented and gave Boruto an explanation, albeit a very cryptic one.
"I think she understood that she had a responsibility… to try." With her voice slow and lingering, it was clear that Wasabi was putting as much thought as she could into her words. "I don't think she would regret her choice, because a true kunoichi would have understood that there really wasn't a choice to make. And a kunoichi she truly was."
Boruto stood there in silence. He took a very deep breath, and after slowly exhaling, he said, "Forget about it. I just…" He shook his head and sat down, his back leaning on the pedestal. "Never a day goes by that I don't see her with me. Honestly, I was having a whole conversation with her before you three found me. I think it's my mind's own way of coping with the pain I feel… with the guilt I feel, that I didn't stop her… I failed to save her…"
A tear flowed down his eye. It was a tear that had been building up inside, a tear that he finally let out. "I've always blamed myself… You probably all know that by now. So I just thought, maybe if I knew why she did it, I could understand… and maybe, just maybe, I could start trying to forgive myself." Face covered in his hands, he jested, "I think I really should have taken that free therapy session a while ago…"
Sarada sat beside him and rubbed his back in an effort to comfort him, letting him know that he wasn't alone. "When Sumi gave up her own life for ours, we lost our best friend, our teammate, and our sister. We're all still hurt from it, even now. As you heard from Namida in our therapy session, we three also have visions and dreams and daydreams with Sumire. She loved all of us, and we all loved her too."
Meanwhile, Wasabi knelt on one knee in front of him. She continued her thoughts from a while ago. "I think she knew she wasn't going to win… that she wasn't getting out alive… But she also knew that she was the only one who could try… Try to buy us all time to escape. And so she did. She saved us all."
"There's no greater sacrifice, no greater love, than to lay down one's life for one's friends," Namida quoted a line from an old story she read many years ago. She sighed deeply. "And we all wish she were back here with us again, for real-"
"I'm sorry," Boruto interrupted her, apologizing. "I'm so sorry… I've been a terrible leader, a terrible friend, a weak-hearted coward of a person for leaving everyone, for only now coming back home, for being useless-"
"Stop right there," Sarada hushed him. "Boruto, don't say that."
"But it's true-"
"No, it's not." Wasabi immediately contradicted him, albeit softly. "You're one of the strongest and kindest and bravest people I know."
"She's right," Namida agreed. "Boruto, you're not being fair to yourself. We love you, okay? We love you, just like we loved Sumire. We're not just friends, we're family."
Sarada nodded as well. "We don't want to lose you too."
*******XXXXXXX*******
The metallic elevator doors opened, and Wasabi, Namida, Sarada, and Boruto walked onto the cozy, carpeted hallway of the 41st floor of the East Foci Tower. They turned onto along a long corridor, white walls contrasting with the thin brown needle-felt rug that covered the corridor floor. Once they got to the end of the hallway, Wasabi took out a key from her bag and unlocked their apartment, Room 4117.
Once the door opened, Wasabi and Namida let their two friends into their apartment unit, which was complete with a living room that had two green sofas on the reddish brown narra hardwood floor and a curved LCD television attached to the wall, a dining room and a glass-topped table flanked by 5 light chairs, and several panes of floor-to-ceiling windows at the far corner and edges of the room, with curtains drawn wide open to let the sunlight in. On one side of the living room was the door to their bedroom, and on the other side was a spare room with a computer setup and acoustic equipment. There was also a small balcony that jutted out the north side slightly, with a telescope standing on a tripod pointing to the heavens.
"Sorry if it's a bit disorganized," Namida apologized with a chuckle. "
Sarada replied, "No, it's fine! I've missed being here, actually. We used to be able to hang out here once a week, back when our schedules and breaks could match each other…"
Meanwhile, Boruto looked around the apartment. "It's spacious, but it still looks cozy and homely! And… wow, this view!"
He rushed to the window wall and looked out over the city. From where he stood, he could see to the north and northwest the Hokage Mansion with its bright red curved walls and yellow roofs, the Konoha University campus and its many new buildings spreading out from the original Ninja Academy, and Senju Park where they had just gone through. He even managed to spot what looked to be his own house and Sarada's house to the west, though they were tiny and hard to see from 41 stories up and with the sun now getting lower and lower in the sky over the west side of the city.
He also saw the eight stone faces at Hokage Rock. His sensei Konohamaru's face was the most recent addition, for he served as the Eighth Hokage, albeit for only a short period of time amid the chaos of the Kara Offensive and the disappearance of Naruto and Sasuke in the middle of the battle and rescue operations. He remembered that the two of them were only able to return hours after the end of the siege, and as such Konohamaru promptly ceded power and control back to Naruto.
"You can go out to the balcony if you want," Wasabi told him. "Just be careful with the telescope. It's precious."
"It's fine," Boruto replied as he took one last look at his city before walking towards the sofas, where they were seated. "I love it," he gave his verdict on the apartment. "It's so cool, you know?"
Wasabi grinned and giggled. "Namida pays most of the rent here. I just pay what I can from what money my parents give me for allowance." She stood up. "I'll get some snacks and drinks!"
As Wasabi made her way to the kitchen, Sarada recognized a dark notebook on the table in the middle of the living room, just in front of their sofa. It was their astronomy logbook, where Namida and Wasabi would detail their observations. She leaned forward and opened it. "How's stargazing been? Have you been able to make observations lately?"
"The last time was like two months ago," she told her, "for the Lyrid meteor shower. Sadly, we couldn't go out of town to watch, and well, you know the light pollution here." Namida chuckled and sighed. "We only saw a few bright Lyrids on April 22, its peak day." She then scooted beside them and flipped it to another page. "On the other hand," she added, "we had a very successful observation night for the Geminids last December!"
"Hehehe, you two sure love your astronomy," Sarada smiled before she and Boruto read the log entry.
December 14, 108 CE
12-1:15 A.M.
Geminids spotted near:
1) Orion
2) Canis Majoris - Monoceros
3) Canis Majoris - Orion
4) Canis Minoris
5) Gemini - Canis Minoris (this was the brightest streak! Between Castor-Pollux and Procyon, roughly parallel to the line of Castor and Pollux)
6) Lepus - Eridanus
7) Hydra (near Zeta Hydrae/Hydrobius)
8) Puppis - Canis Majoris
9) Canis Majoris
10) Lepus - Columba
11) Gemini - Auriga
12) Canis Majoris
13) Puppis
14) Puppis - Pyxis - Vela
The faintest constellations we were able to spot for sure tonight:
- Columba the Dove (magnitude of Phact = 2.6 and Wazn = 3.1)
- Monoceros the Unicorn (magnitude of Beta Monocerotis [the triple-star] = 3.74 and Alpha Monocerotis = 3.94)
- Pyxis the Navigation Compass (magnitude of Alpha Pyxidis = 3.67, Beta Pyxidis = 3.95, and Gamma Pyxidis = 4.01)
Also, we were also able to glimpse Uranus with our binoculars, although it was super faint. We needed 5-10 minutes of tracking it down, checking our online star map, and then rechecking its position relative to other stars to confirm it was Uranus. Once we confirmed its location, we tried looking at it with our naked eyes. Wasabi saw it well, blue-greenish hue and all. I had to strain my eyes to see it at all because it was quite dim, magnitude +5.67 tonight when I looked it up. But I saw it, barely a speck of light against its surrounding darkness.
Wasabi returned, holding a wooden tray with two bowls of ripened grapes and four glasses of ice tea. "That night was so fun," she reminisced as she sat on the smaller sofa. "We went to my family's winter vacation home, on a hill near the east outskirts of the city. We stayed out in the snow for over an hour just stargazing."
"I've looked out on a few clear nights here and there too," Boruto told them. "Mostly when Uncle Sasuke and I would camp out away from cities, or when we weren't staying at Oto. I'd wonder if I was looking at the same stars as you two."
"I'm sure we probably did at least once," Namida replied. "And now that you said it, I remember you were at Oto a lot!"
"Yeah, it was pretty much our home base! It's where we came back to the most."
"You even stayed over at Yan's place, right?"
He nodded to Namida's question. "A couple of nights? I enjoyed the free food and company, at the least."
At the same time, Sarada was furiously searching through the gallery of photos on her phone, until she at last saw what she was looking for. "I remember this one!" She showed them a picture Yan had sent her of Boruto, deep asleep on an inflatable bed on the floor of her room, with snores and drool coming from his mouth.
The three girls laughed out loud while Boruto reacted, "Awww come on! Really? How many of those did she send you?"
"It was sort of a nightly update," Sarada mentioned, trying to suppress even more laughter. "So one for every night you stayed there."
Boruto sighed and tried to move to another topic, trying to avoid more embarrassment. "So, what else have you girls been up to while I was gone?"
"Learning from your dad, Lord Seventh, as Hokage-to-be."
"I'm studying in the university to become a doctor. I've been doing okay these past five semesters, considering I'm also juggling a student council position, my activism and organizations, and working part-time as Aunt Sakura's assistant at Konoha Hospital for my OJT."
"And I've been supporting us with the money I earn from posting videos and songs online. Oh, and also from the ads from some companies on my channels. Those ads make me a good profit too!"
Boruto took a peek at the spare room that served as Namida's recording booth. "You use that studio room for audio capture?"
"Yeah, for my songs."
"Have you ever thought about voice acting?"
"Yeah actually," Namida nodded. "I recently thought about it. I could give it a try, though I'll probably be selective with the roles for video games or animated shows. Like, I definitely wouldn't want to scream for hours just to record some wacky character's voice."
"I mean, we've already had panels of soundproof foam installed all around our apartment," Wasabi reasoned. "And doubly around your studio and our bedroom. I'm sure the neighbors wouldn't mind, as long as they don't hear you."
"No, it's not that. I just don't want to strain my voice too much."
On the other hand, the gears in Boruto's mind were turning, and Sarada noticed it just before pointed out, "You said you put two layers of soundproof wall panels?"
Wasabi nodded her head. "Double the protection!"
Boruto couldn't help but smirk. "…Around your bedroom?"
"Pffft…" Sarada shook her head and laughed. "Somehow, I had a feeling you'd ask that."
Namida's cheeks turned red and she looked away quickly, while Wasabi sighed and laughed along with Sarada. "Yes, cause we've gotten several noise complaints-"
"Wasabi!" Sarada and Namida gasped at the same time, albeit for very different reasons. Namida's blush spread to the rest of her face, while Sarada was struggling to keep herself from showing off the huge grin on her face.
"Both for Namida's singing and content-making," Wasabi continued, "and because we could get… pretty loud and rowdy in our private times…"
Sarada then joked, "Ohh dear, you make quality content out of your private times? Scandalous! But it does rake in the money though-"
"NOOOOOOO!" Namida gently shook Sarada by the shoulders. "Stop. Being. So. Green-minded."
"Geeeeeez, even I didn't go that far," Boruto guffawed, nearly falling off the sofa.
"Hehehe I'm kidding, I'm kidding," Sarada snaked her arm around Namida and patted her shoulder, and so Namida soon stopped shaking her back and forth. "But seriously, I'm so happy and proud that you get as much as you do. You have so much in the bank now, don't you?"
"Well, remember that in the past, we often used Sumire's funds in her old Konoha Metro Bank account for rent and tuition and sudden expenses, especially before my channels took off. So now that I get enough, I return some of the spare money to that account."
"It's pretty much another bank account for just the three of us now," Wasabi chuckled. "But I'm sure Sumire would have wanted us to take care of her money, and that she'd be okay with us three using it for our needs too."
"As long as we don't abuse it," Sarada added. "And I don't think we ever really did."
"Wait," Boruto asked them, "why do only you three have access to her bank account?"
"You also have access to it," Sarada informed him. "You just weren't here when we found out about her directive from the bank. Oh, and you didn't really have a use for the money. At least, that's what Dad told us."
"Hehehe, we did get a lot of things for free in Oto," Boruto admitted. "But now that I'm here?"
"Yeah, remind me to give you the account details later."
Wasabi further filled him in. "Sumire told the bank, in case anything happened to her, that she granted us four unlimited access and safeguarding duties to her funds. She even put us in the section usually meant for immediate family and beneficiaries. She also lent Lord Seventh and Sai-sensei and a few others the ability to view transaction details and withdraw limited amounts of money as they saw fit."
"She valued us that much," Namida sighed. "She loved and valued me more than my parents, that's for sure."
Sarada asked her, "They never visited you after we came back from Ame, did they?"
"Nope, not one. Not even a call. Before today, the last time I saw them was the day I left the house, the day they disowned me for loving Wasabi. They probably tried to forget I was ever their child." She scoffed harshly. "Good, because I want to forget all those years they acted as my parents."
She pulled out her phone and then searched for a specific video. "Boruto, a while ago you wanted to know exactly what they follow, right?"
"I am morbidly curious about it. But I get the feeling that it's very messed up…"
"You have no idea…"
As Wasabi sat beside Namida, Namida showed the three of them a video of a speech. In the video, a tall, graying, well-dressed man stood on a stage, with a podium and microphone before him. Above him was a white banner that said, "March of the Saints".
Namida pressed the play button in the middle of her phone, and the old man began to speak.
"Over the last thirty years, there's been a concentrated attack on our boys. There's been an effort to destroy our traditional image of strong men and to replace it with the image of the strong woman. That's not good for our society and our families. And it's not good for women too, because women aren't created to lead, they're created to follow. They're not meant to be top, they're meant to be on the bottom." His seated audience in the video snickered at his inappropriate joke and murmured in approval.
"I already want it to stop," Sarada grimaced.
"Same," Wasabi concurred. "Namida?"
"It only gets worse from here…"
"Who are these radical women? These stupid women, who want to help others by leading and taking over? These women have been destroying our families, our schools, and our government for too long! They shouldn't be allowed to lead families or our country, because that's what men should do! It upsets the natural order of life itself! They should be rooted out of our society, just like how the gays must be dealt with because they dare go against our precious laws of life! These people want to reverse and perverse our order, our way of life, but we'll never let them-"
"Enough!" Wasabi tapped the phone and paused the video, whilst balling her other hand into a fist and gritting her teeth. Namida, seeing her friends now very uncomfortable, exited the video and put away her phone. Silence filled the room, and so Wasabi slowly exhaled in relief. "Sorry…"
"Ugh! Disgusting!" Sarada growled. "Just hearing that garbage pissed me off."
Boruto added, "That's insane! How is it still a thing?"
"I grew up in that," Namida closed her eyes. "That's what my parents would try to hammer into my head every single day." But she opened her eyes and looked at her friends. "But I got out from it, and I'm in a much better spot now, thanks to you guys."
*******XXXXXXX*******
The fading hues of the sunset passed through the windows, bathing the walls of the apartment in dusky variants of red and orange, though Namida still turned on the lights in the living room so that the room was bright enough. The grapes in the twin bowls were all gone by now, with only the branches that had once held them together being left in the bowls on the table. Similarly, the glasses that had iced tea now only contained the water from the melted ice cubes.
"That's what Denki wants," Boruto told them. "He wants to make a database out of the entire Gozu Tennou manuscript in order to study its different aspects and properties, and what it can be made to do. That's why I went to him earlier, to give the data drive to him."
Sarada explained further, "He was trying to get to the bottom of the time-manipulation jutsu and what mechanism of the Gozu Tennou allowed Sumire and Nue to do it."
For a few seconds, Wasabi looked Sarada in the eye, and then nodded. "Yeah, she turned back time. I don't know how, but she did."
Namida was visibly confused. "I have no memory of this…"
Wasabi closed her eyes and remembered that fateful day, that bloody encounter on the Hod Pass on the third day of the Battle of Hod and Feres Passes. "Namida, you sang the First Fonic Hymn and put the first wave to sleep. Do you remember?"
"I remember that. We were taking over for Team 7 while they helped Team 10 evacuate Chocho, right?" She took a deep breath, holding her chest as if she felt a gaping wound that was no longer there. "I remember fainting. I tried to get up, but then I felt a striking pain from my back coming up to my breast… I couldn't breathe… blood in my throat, my chest…"
"You were shot by a sniper," Wasabi filled in.
"You and Sumire and Nue saved me… I… I don't recall much after I was shot. It's all so hazy. All I know is that you rushed me back to Rem Fortress, and Hanabi-sensei performed emergency surgery on me."
"Namida, you were…" Wasabi swallowed. "There was another wave that charged our position… I lost my arms trying to save you, but you sent my flying back behind the defensive cover line. You… You were dead… Direct hit from an artillery shell… But Sumire undid all of that. She lost control of the jutsu. She caused the explosion that blocked off Hod Pass… She couldn't hold it long enough to undo the first bullet you got…"
"It's not just from Wasabi and Denki," Sarada confirmed. "It was straight from Sumire's words too. I listened in on her checkup that night." She turned to Wasabi. "I heard what she told you two. I even followed her all the way up to the summit of Mount Tirad, and we talked about it there."
Namida gripped Wasabi's hand tight. "This is actually the first time I've heard of this… It's… hard to even fathom, really… But I trust both of you. Thanks for telling me about it."
Meanwhile, Boruto noticed the clock now read 5:39 pm. "I think we should be going soon."
"It's an hour away," Sarada also looked at the time. "You're right." She turned back to Namida and rubbed her shoulder. "You okay?"
"I'm alright." Namida breathed out and then smiled. "It was just a lot to take in. But we're okay now. It's not really affecting us now, is it?"
Wasabi nodded. She stood up and held out her hand, helping Namida to her feet as well. They picked up the bowls and glasses on the table and brought them to the sink in the kitchen. Wasabi threw the tiny grape branches into the trash bin, while Namida went back and scrubbed off the wet marks left on their white table with a piece of tissue.
But as Namida was cleaning, she remembered something else. She knelt down, opened a drawer under the table, and pulled out a yellow notebook on top of a familiar drawstring bag, its pages worn and yellowed with time.
Sarada immediately recognized what it was, and Namida knew it.
"Yes, it's her journal." The brunette handed it gently to her. "Please, take your time reading it, while we change outfits for the dinner party."
Wasabi asked, "Can you wait for a few minutes?"
"Yes, of course," Sarada answered. "We might as well go to Boruto's house together."
"I'll send the links to the song versions I've made of her writings later online," Namida promised before she and her girlfriend closed the door of the bedroom to change clothes.
Boruto sat beside Sarada while she opened the journal to the bookmarked pages. "Here, one of my favorites! Embrace."
"You mentioned it a while ago while talking to Namida, right?"
She nodded. "It's the third of seven Sumire wrote. She finished it the day before we spotted the Land of Earth's Second Army coming towards us. And it's the first one that Namida made into a song. Hehehe, you could say it launched her career. They got her millions of views on her StreamTeam channel and a deal with a record company."
She showed the journal to him. They read Sumire's familiar handwriting on the old, faded page, with erasure marks and all.
Embrace
To Boruto, the one who saved me
The sunlight wavers as it shines through the trees
I hear your voice with your usual "Good morning"
What are you hiding deep inside yourself?
Or perhaps I should ask that to myself?
In our story that's just begun
I want to know more about your world
As I grasp onto your fingers that I touched by chance
Your false shows of courage, your weaknesses, everything else
I'll embrace it all
Firmly
I can't forget the time I first met you was outside in the sunlight
Our time that we had gradually accumulated is engraved in my heart
The future that had once looked so far off now feels so close by
These irreplaceable feelings grew little by little
I simply wanted to find what's special to me, together with you
To hold onto your hand until I've erased your insecurities
Forever
I want to tell you,
"I'll be right by your side"
Always
In our story that's just begun,
I want to know more about our world
As I hold onto those fingers that I touched by chance,
Your false shows of courage, your weaknesses, everything about you
I embrace it all
Firmly
Sarada sighed. "A love song… of course." She chuckled while remembering those fond memories with Sumire. She absent-mindedly turned a few pages of writing and sketches and diary-like journal entries until her eyes caught a title she knew. As she scanned the text, she recognized the different tone. It was no love letter. It was an entry where she wrote about what she was feeling at the time. Sarada judged by the date at the top right that it was written on the third night of the battle. "It was that night that we found out…" Sarada spoke internally, "what had happened to Sumi… what was happening to her…"
She took a deep breath, although Boruto didn't seem to notice as he looked to be deep in thought as well. "This is another one Namida made into a song. This was the most recent one she released. She made it into more of a fast-paced, upbeat rock song to show off some versatility. It's what cemented her as a rising star instead of a one-hit wonder."
Mirrors for One Another
To Boruto, Sarada, Wasabi, and Namida, my best friends
Though I've tried so hard to keep my hands clean and free,
Being stained by the blood and the sins of my father, they're still dirty
I'm not sure anymore of who I was, who I am now, and who I will be,
Yet before I doubt my memory, my memory will doubt me
We are mirrors meant for one another
To reflect every little bit of each other
We will clasp each other's dirtied hands
And their shapes we'll take into heart
We'll meet each other again, I'm sure
Making both our beating hearts into landmarks
And when our fingers touch and overlap together
I'll know the meaning of my birth for sure.
We are mirrors meant for one another
To reflect every little bit of each other
We will clasp each other's dirtied hands
And their shapes we'll take into heart
"How many songs are there?"
"She's made three of seven into songs. She's been having trouble making the others into song form. She's wondering how to alter some of the words to make better lyrics or flow easier, without removing from what Sumire intended."
The bedroom door opened, and Wasabi and Namida came out wearing fresh clothes, with Wasabi wearing a dark T-shirt and jeans ripped at the knees, and Namida wearing a beige blouse and a knee-length black skirt.
"Let's go," Wasabi told Boruto and Sarada, who stood up and nodded. "I'm so excited to see everyone again!"
Sarada asked, "Can we also pick up my mom on the way by? And dad, if he's back home now."
"Sure thing!"
*******XXXXXXX*******
In his lab, Denki was staring at his computer screen through the lenses of his glasses. It was giving him updates of his supercomputer scanning the encrypted data drive containing the Gozu Tennou. It has been a few hours since Boruto and Sarada gave him the USB drive and left. The document and database that the supercomputer was parsing together was already at a thousand digital pages long and was still rendering more every minute, with no sign of the end in sight.
"I wonder how long this actually is," he asked himself. He looked at the clock on the upper right tab of his laptop, which read 5:57 pm. "What time can I go to the dinner?"
Then, he heard the door of his lab office open behind him. He heard light footsteps of someone stepping inside.
"Why did you need to see it?" A calm voice of the man asked him.
Denki instinctively lowered the brightness of his laptop screen to zero, so that it functioned like a black mirror. He instantly recognized the face of the man standing by the door behind him. The man wore dark colors and had a katana at his side. The young professor pressed a button to return the screen brightness back to his preferred level, then turned his swivel chair.
"Sasuke-sensei," he greeted him respectfully after he closed the door behind him. "I assume Boruto told you he wanted to give me the Gozu Tennou, but not why?"
"You didn't tell him why."
"I know." He looked to the side. "I didn't want to give him false hope, if ever it turns out that way…" He glanced back at Sasuke, who was still standing. "Please, take a seat. This might be a while."
"I stopped by Naruto's office a while ago," Sarada's father informed Denki. "After we spoke, he left to get ready for the dinner reunion tonight. You're going to be there, right?"
"Yes. I'm just waiting for this document to render fully. Then I'll change clothes and go to Boruto's house for the dinner."
"Which brings me back to my first question: Why do you need it?"
"It's… a long story." Denki drank from his flask of cold water. "It's not just my own experiences, but also from my friends, from Team 15, from Mitsuki, from your daughter, and from what you've told us about what Boruto sees." He sighed. "I've been theorizing about it all too."
"I'm here already," Sasuke replied. "Might as well hear it all out."
How was the chapter? If you liked it, feel free to share what you loved in a comment or review, and you can give kudos and likes and follows too.
So we had Boruto discovering Sumire's statue, Sumire appearing to him, Boruto, Sarada, Wasabi, and Namida catching up at the apartment and learning more about each other and the past, and Denki determined to unlock the secrets of the Gozu Tennou!
We also had other smaller details, like the title itself (yes, it's a Phantom of the Opera reference), the telescope and astronomy logbook (I'm an amateur astronomer as well, so I regularly view these constellations and stars with my binoculars and my Stellarium online star map, and it's also good that I've written Wasabi and Namida as stargazers since early in the first book), the cult-like beliefs that Namida was exposed to by her parents (which itself is based on real life statements and beliefs by disgusting racist and misogynist people), and two more writings of Sumire, which Namida had made into song.
Specifically, "Embrace" is based on "Kimi ni Furete", the opening song of Bloom Into You, sung by Azuna Riko. Meanwhile, "Mirrors for One Another" is based on "Karma", the opening song of Tales of the Abyss, written and sung by Bump of Chicken.
Now that my life is less hectic, I'll try to go back to the old schedule, and so the next chapter, Chapter 5: "Dinner at the Uzumaki Home" should (hopefully) be up next week! It'll be a big reunion, with characters from three different generations all making appearances! Don't miss out! ^_^
Until then, enjoy, and keep safe! And get vaccinated too, if possible! Love you guys! ^_^ 3