Chapter 7
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Comments
A little bit of a teaser as to what I'm planning ;) I do have an idea as to how I'm going to build on the Naruto world. It's still in the works but I promise you (hopefully!) won't be disappointed.
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"It's no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then."
~ Lewis Carroll ~
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-Warring States Era: The Uchiha Clan Compound-
"Dodge!"
I let out a shrill squeak as I dropped the neatly folded robes into mud when a rogue shuriken sliced the air in front of me, coming to land with a soft thud on the wooden pillar inches where my head was.
"Izuna!" A voice shouted and my head turned numbly to where two boys were training; the posture of the younger making me realise he was responsible for the lousy throw.
"Oh my god… OH MY GOD!" The younger one, Izuna, shrieked, "WHY DIDN'T YOU DODGE?"
"Are you alright?" The older boy asked as he came up and helped me pick up the now ruined, mud-soaked garments.
"I won't be when I have to re-do all of these robes by tomorrow." I pouted, eyes watering at the beautiful robes I had spent so long on.
"Hey kid, why didn't ya dodge?" Izuna asked, and it took every fibre of self-control in my body not to pummel the boy for ruining weeks of hard work.
"First off," I started, dropping the clothes back down, "Don't call me 'kid'. You're the same age as me Uchiha-san, and secondly, not EVERYONE is a ninja alright?"
But the boy was uncertain, "How old are you?"
"I'm turning 10."
"I'm 11. You're younger than me, therefore, you're a kid." He replied, sticking a tongue out like a… well, a kid.
"Why you-" I lunged forward only for the older one to pull me back.
"Please forgive my brother's behaviour." He smiled, returning the clothes to me, "I'm Madara, and this is Izuna. Are you the seamstress' new helper?"
I nodded, "Granny said I spent too much time inside, so she wants me to 'go on an adventure'… who knew that my first adventure could have also been my last." I glared at Izuna who rolled his eyes at me.
But the older brother smiled, "I see. Well, we are very sorry for this uhh-"
"Kana. My name is Kana." I said, side-eyeing Izuna.
Madara huffed before turning around to hold back his younger brother from brandishing a dull sword and charging at me, "Excuse me Kana, we must resume our training. But again, I'm so sorry for that."
After that 'incident', I didn't bother with continuing my journey to deliver ruined robes. Instead, I walked back to the little shop granny and I set up at the edge of the Uchiha clan's compound and prepared myself to say goodbye to the garments I had spent so much time on.
"Oh-what happened?" Granny asked, seeing the beautiful robes looking all matted from being dropped on the wet ground and caked in mud.
"An Uchiha boy with a poor mastery of the shuriken happened." I huffed, "Sorry Granny, but I'll be busy for the next few days."
But she smiled, patting my shoulder, "Don't stress. Let me see if I can ask Tajima for an extension."
I smiled hopefully, stretching as I prepared for a period of intense, back-breaking work. My poor fingers would definitely be feeling this…
-Weeks later-
'Thank God Tajima-san was fine with the extension.' I sighed, lying spread-eagle on the floor of the wooden cabin, looking up at different threads suspended around the small room I called my workshop, 'Redoing the ceremonial robes in two days would have been impossible.'
"And we only have one more!" I cheered, ricocheting back up and quickly giving my 'workspace' a clean up.
Bending down, I reached for a rogue piece of fabric when a loud crash scared the living daylights out of me, and I all but headbutt another presence in my workspace.
The figure flailed momentarily, "Whoa whoa-", stumbling backwards and falling through some spare sheets of fabric I had hung up.
"Oh my God," I winced, but quickly cleared the wreckage to see who the unfortunate victim of my mess was, "Are you okay?"
"Sheeeesh, do you have a helmet for a skull or something?" Izuna winced, trying to rub his chin despite being tangled and strung up like household decor.
I stared at him dumbly. Then let out a laugh so big that I fell down, adding to the mess on the floor.
"Oh what a ninja you are." I screamed, his fuming face doing little to calm me down.
"You could keep this space a little cleaner! You must be violating every work health and safety regulation there is in this death trap." He yelled back, carefully trying to untangle one of his legs that had been bent at a very comical angle.
Finally composing myself, I grabbed a pair of scissors and started to cut him free of the threads, "You've really got them all messed up, so I'll just keep cutting until I hit the one with the most tension. That should free you-but DON'T fall on me!" I warned, narrowing my eyes.
He huffed, gesturing to his predicament and his lack of control over his limbs and gravity.
"Fair enough." I accepted, "Okay this one doesn't look like it's holding anything up." I cut a strand by his arm-
-and he crashed down ontop of me.
Izuna's knee kicked my cheek, so I promptly pushed him off and sent him rolling out the doors of my cabin.
"You're not a ninja but that's a battle zone right there." He said, groaning as he slowly sat up.
"What do you want Izuna?" I sighed, "I hope you didn't come to throw another shuriken in my face or ruin another batch of robes."
He cast his eyes down at that, going to scratch his head sheepishly, "Yeah… about that…."
"I'm sorry." He mumbled, avoiding eye contact.
"Forgiven. Was that all?" I asked to which he looked up at with confusion.
"You're not still mad?" He asked cautiously.
"Oh I was, but being given the opportunity to remake them all showed me that my first batch was, honestly, uglyyyyyyy." I cringed, thinking back to how I wanted to slap myself for the horrid designs.
He shot up like a puppy, looking offended, "No they weren't! They looked really pretty!"
I raised an eyebrow and grabbed one of the spoiled fabrics from a basket and thrust it into his hands.
"Look, the colours are off. The stitching was horrible, and you'd have to be drunk on chakra exhaustion before ANYONE would think that's a bird." I rattled off, picking apart all of its flaws and horrified that I would be giving these to the clan's elders.
"Uhh… Kana-chan." He spoke and I realised I had unintentionally intruded in his personal space.
"Oh, I'm so sorry… I got a bit carried away." I smiled, moving to take the fabric back.
"I like it." He huffed stubbornly, pink lightly dusting his cheeks. "If you don't want it, I'll keep it."
"Are you sure?" I asked, one brow raised dubiously, "If you need a robe I'll be happy to make you a better one-"
I was cut off as the boy stubbornly pulled it on, giving me a grin as he twirled before me.
"Suit yourself I guess." I smiled.