Diet Soda Society

"The bloody unknown, my fear in essence"


Everything changed when the fire nation attacked.

Wow, I never thought I'd be able to say that with a straight face, but I guess it was true now. The day that bird flew into our living room marked a permanent shift in my life. The Land of Fire had declared war on the Land of Wind, and my god, shit just hit the fan. It was like the entire world had been asleep for the past two years and had just suddenly woken up.

I think I'll remember that day for the rest of my life. We followed Nawaki to the Academy building after the bird left. Biwako was supposedly at the hospital picking up a shift for somebody, so none was there to protest when Isamu decided he wanted to go with Nawaki to see Hiruzen's official speech. And of course, if Isamu was going, Asuma and I were going to have to tag along as well. Otherwise he'd get into even more trouble for leaving us alone.

The moment we stepped into the streets, it was clear that the village had entered some sort of official state of emergency. There were random civilians in the street, all walking like confused sheep towards the town center. Meanwhile the roofs were alive. Ninja were pouring out of every crevice of the village, all bolting forward to report for duty. I even saw a few Anbu running in the bungled mix of people above us.

It occurred to me that I'd never actually seen any of our Black Ops members in person before. They made this entire situation feel that much more real. Konoha was turning literally every stone over for this war. No one was going to be left out.

Isamu and Nawaki noticed the Anbu on the roofs as well, and they didn't seem to be particularly comforted by the operatives' presence. After the two spotted the masked figures, they seemed to make some silent agreement that Asuma and I shouldn't have contact with the ground anymore. I wasn't going to complain though. I had a much better view of things from Nawaki's arms. Without the two of us walking, our pace picked up significantly as well. We were standing in front of the Academy building just fifteen minutes later.

The ninja were everywhere here. People were streaming off the rooftops; loitering in front of the gates; I even saw a few appearing out of thin air. Naturally, that meant it was a lot noisier here as well. The shinobi were all gossiping about the war like high schoolers.

"Another ambush", "Who'd they come after now?", "Are they okay?", "It's about time.", "Suna won't get away with this." Determination was bleeding in the air.

And despite everything, not a single person really seemed to be surprised. Concerned sure, but not surprised.

That's what bothered me the most. Isamu and Asuma had been completely blindsided by this. Hell, I would've been too if I hadn't overheard them talking the other night. Why were we the last ones to find out? You'd think that since we lived with the Hokage, we'd at least be up to date on all of our local news. Biwako must've been trying harder to shield us from all of this than I'd realized.

From the front of the building, we were directed towards the Academy yard. They had set up desks where secretary ninja seemed to be handing out duties to everyone. Nawaki was supposed to check in there to receive his assignment for the next few months. Of course, I didn't want him to. He was safe right now with me, but lord knows where the lady with the fire nation stamp would send him.

Luckily though, it wasn't something I was going to have to deal with just yet. Before we made it over to the desk, familiar faces spotted us.

"Hey, is that Nawaki-kun wearing that headband?" a boisterous voice called to us. We spun around to find a giant bear-man with locks whiter than mine bounding towards us. I smiled - Jiraiya was always good to me.

"Yeah! I got it this morning!" Nawaki said, puffing out his chest and letting Jiraiya admire his headband. Behind Jiraiya, Tsunade and Orochimaru seemed to be conversing about something. That is, until the noise their teammate distracted them. Tsunade's eyes zoomed in on me immediately of course.

"Oi, what're you three doing here," she demanded, pointing at us.

"Hi to you too Tsunade-nee," I sighed.

At the same time Asuma piped up with a real explanation: "The ninja bird flew by and told us there was a war."

"The sarcasm isn't funny," Tsunade glared at me. Though of course, you could probably argue that I'd inherited all my sarcasm straight from the Slug Queen herself. "And I don't care what any nin-bird said, you should be at home, where all the civilians belong. Nawaki, what were you thinking letting them come with you?"

"Uh, well they wanted to see what was happening too," Nawaki mumbled. "Hey, Nee-chan, didn't you see I'm a ninja now!" Tsunade rolled her eyes, looking like she was ready to start knocking some sense into her brother. I bet she already found out Nawaki was graduating today from some source or another.

"I'm sorry if we've overstepped Tsunade-senpai," Isamu jumped in with a respectful bow. "I can take Asuma and Natsuki home."

"But we haven't found Dad yet," Asuma grumbled.

"Aw, Tsunade, it's probably fine. The only thing they could get in the way of right now is paperwork," Jiraiya nodded, apparently taking pity on us. Tsunade didn't look convinced though. I guess I couldn't blame her. Judging from the hoard of shinobi gathered here, I bet Hiruzen was buried in work right now.

"Sarutobi-sensei will want them to see," Orochimaru strolled over. He seemed casually bored, like he always did. I hadn't even noticed it, but while we were bickering, he seemed to have nabbed an envelope from the assignment table. "And you might want to say any good byes as well. It looks like we'll be going with him."

"Going? Going where?" Asuma piped up confused. He had a stricken look on his face, like he might be pretty upset later if his dad was actually leaving. That wasn't going to be any good for me. Asuma was always a brat around Hiruzen, but it was only because he wanted attention. He wasn't okay with Hiruzen's persistent absence as things were. It could only get worse if the Hokage had to completely leave the village.

Tsunade frowned and snatched the envelope from Orochimaru. Her eyes scanned it for a minute before making eye contact with Jiraiya for a moment.

"Looks like it," she nodded quietly. Then she sighed. "Alright Nawaki, you get off this time. We're part of the primary ambush squad. So I guess we'll be heading out tonight."

"Great, well I'm going to go get my assignment. Because I'm a ninja now," he announced. He plopped me on the ground before slinking off towards the desk himself.

"Dad's leaving too?" Asuma repeated, louder this time.

"The Hokage will need to be close at hand to give orders," Orochimaru said serenely. "He probably won't be coming back for quite some time."

Asuma looked horrified

"Orochimaru," Tsunade sighed with a cutting look. The snake man just kind of shrugged, dropping it. He didn't seem to regret anything though.

"Best he hear the truth. Lies won't shield them for long now," Orochimaru said evenly.

I blinked, as that set it. "Wait, does this mean you're leaving today? Like right now?" I asked. I don't know what I expected, but I thought I'd have some more time to say my goodbyes. Or at least prepare myself for them. If we hadn't decided to follow Nawaki to the Academy grounds, would we have gotten any farewells at all?

"Eh, don't worry, it won't be for too too long," Tsunade smiled. "We may on the front lines for now, but I'm also the best medical ninja the village has got. They'll have us rotating all over the place before long."

"They'll be worried that the hospital will fall apart without her," Jiraiya winked at me.

"Flattery will get you nowhere," Tsunade glared at him. Nevertheless, she scooped me up in her arms and enveloped me in a big hug. "You'll be good for Biwako-san while we're gone?"

"I'm always good for her," I said. "Just sometimes Asuma get's me in trouble for things that are his fault."

"Hey!" Asuma protested, sounding kind of affronted. I stuck my tongue out at him. Better he be bickering with me than moping about his father.

"Uh-huh," Tsunade rolled her eyes. Then she turned towards Isamu. "Take care of her while I'm gone, kiddo."

"I will," Isamu smiled. She went to over to say goodbye to Nawaki after that, and I watched from afar as he showed her his envelope and a flash of worry flew over Tsunade's face. It was only for a second, but I knew, Nawaki must've actually gotten an assignment. My stomach knotted.

He doesn't have her necklace yet, I reminded myself.

When he came back over, he flashed his envelope in front of me. "Can you read it Natsuki-chan?" he asked.

"Third Cohort Reinforcement Squad?" I read aloud. "What's that mean?"

"They're gonna assign me a sensei and genin teammates like they usually do, and we're going to stay here in the village training until the third cohort calls for reinforcements. Then we'll get to go out and fight!" Nawaki said. "I don't see why I can't go help now, like everyone else, but it's okay I guess. I'm going to be super strong by the time they need me!"

"That's great Nawaki-nii," I smiled. That time I actually meant it. I guess we were going to have a little bit more time.

We went and said goodbye to Hiruzen after that, before being handed off to Biwako again. The next morning, I woke up and half the people who had been in my life for the past few years were gone. Even Biwako, who hadn't left the village, wasn't around half the time anymore because of increased needs at the hospital. Asuma and I were suddenly on our own for a good bit of the day.

That year, I started to really see the difference between the ninja world and my old one. Before now, I didn't know anyone would've left two three year olds home alone for even an hour. Now though, it was almost like our own personal duty of war to look after ourselves. "You two have got to take on a lot more responsibility now that your father's gone off," Biwako had said. "It's your duty to the village to do everything you can to help out, even if you're not ninja yet."

That was another interesting observation too- there seemed to always be a lot of talk about duty around here. I guess it made sense when you took one look at Isamu. All that kid ever did was his duty. Whether he was helping out his family, the village, or even just a stranger on the street, he knew how to make his mother proud. Naturally, he carried the burden of war time like a champ. Since Biwako was going back to work at the hospital full time now, Isamu suddenly was cooking dinner and supervising our nightly reading lessons.

Months past and Isamu never once complained or slacked off. I've got to say, I admired him quite a bit for it. When I was a kid, the first time around, my mother would have to hound me for hours just to get me to clean up my own mess. Isamu meanwhile did things just to be helpful. It didn't matter if he was doing his laundrey, mopping the floor up after Asuma spilled soup everywhere, or even sweeping the neighbor's walk. He always was doing something.

Then on top of becoming our own personal babysitter and maid, Isamu also seemed to be taking on a ton of Academy work. As you'd expect, he'd always been a good student, but he seemed to be doing more now. If Isamu wasn't taking care of us, he was doing homework. Sometimes, he would be doing both at the same time.

"Isamu, you're working really hard, huh," I commented one evening when I caught him staying up past bed time to practice the transformation jutsu. Let me tell you, it's kind of disorienting when you walk into your living room to find an Academy professor instead of your older brother.

"Well yeah," he shrugged. "I've got to graduate from the Academy as soon as possible now that the war's started. I want to help out Dad."

"Mm," I nodded, as he transformed into one of his friends this time.

"You'll understand better when you're in the Academy," he went on. "You don't have that much longer to wait you know. I overheard Mom talking about how they want to enlist you a year early so that you'll be in the same class as Asuma."

"Really? They'll take four year olds?" I blinked.

"Dad's the Hokage. They'll take anyone if he says so," Isamu said.

That was news to me. See, in Konoha, they started the school year in January on the first day of the new year. Asuma's birthday was in October, which meant he'd be turning five just in time for the school year to start. Meanwhile, my birthday was in March, which meant I was going to miss the cut off by a hair. If Isamu was right, however, that meant I only had another year and a half to go.

It was music to my ears.

For the next few months, that was what fueled me. When I heard rumors of the awful things happening on the battle front, I would think -it's fine, less than a year and a half and I'll start training. Less than a year and a half and I'll be working to help. It was still hard of course, but I was managing. I think all the worrying had almost helped to prepare me honestly. Now that the war was concrete and real, I actually felt like I had more of a grasp on my life than before.

It also helped that Tsunade hadn't been kidding about how short her first war mission would be. I learned pretty quickly that she was apparently a huge asset in Konoha's war effort. You don't realize just how important she was to the Second Shinobi War effort when you read the manga. But I want you to consider for a moment, that Tsunade was a medical ninja in an era before it was mandatory to have a medical ninja in the field. Frankly, I think she was may have been the only true combat medic that we had in the entire village. That meant that they had her bouncing around all over the place of course, along with Jiraiya and Orochimaru- who honestly seemed to almost be her two ridiculously powerful body guards.

One minute she was on the front lines, saving as many lives as possible, the next she was going on stealth missions, and then the next she'd be back in the village checking up on the hospital. While Hiruzen only visited home once or twice during beginning of the war, I probably saw Tsunade at least once a month.

But of course, you probably know where I'm going with this.

It was only a matter of time before Nawaki got called out onto the field. I had gotten used to having him around, but I knew that he was going to have to leave eventually. There was news coming in all the time now about people falling in battle. The sight of my neighbors walking around in black looking sad, no longer seemed out of place in the village. I was lucky because most of my loved ones happened to be S-class shinobi, but with every strangers death, Nawaki's deployment came closer.

He was listed right now under a reinforcement clause. Sooner or later, the third cohort was going to need him.

Of all the days for it to happen- Nawaki got called into battle on his birthday.

We had been out celebrating. Nawaki took me to the park. It was a small outing with just the two of us, and so I got to have my cousin all to myself. Without Asuma in charge, I spent most of the morning asking Nawaki all about his genin training, instead of playing games. He was more than happy to oblige, and even showed me some of the new jutsu he was learning.

If you asked me, he was coming along great. He could already walk up trees and stand upside down just by using the chakra in his feet. Plus he had started learning some of the earth jutsu. He was far from mastering anything, but when he clasped his hands together, he could make the ground shook a bit. I thought that all of it was splendid. Ninja tended against using their jutsu casually around the village, and so despite all the shinobi I lived with, I hadn't actually seen many of their super powers in person. It was incredible to finally see someone defying the laws of physics in person.

"Ung, I still can't actually make it do anything more than that," Nawaki sighed, looking disappointed. I guess this basic ninjutsu was less impressive to people who weren't carrying all the reincarnation baggage.

"That was amazing! I've never seen anybody who can make the whole ground shake," I gushed excitedly despite him. "What're you gonna call it?"

"Wha-? It's not a real jutsu yet," he muttered.

"Why not? I think you should call it Earthquake no Jutsu, You can use it to uh, make the bad guys fall over. Or set off traps before you hit them," I said. Maybe I was just getting over excited, but honestly, who wouldn't think this was cool? Nawaki could literally make the ground rumble with just his energy! Hell yeah, I was going to geek out about it.

"Well, maybe if I make it shake a little more yeah," Nawaki said thoughtfully. He spent the next thirty minutes trying to get some significant power behind his earth jutsu. I'm happy to report that eventually he did manage to knock me over in the end. I think he was pretty pleased about it too; although, I doubt he'd have been able to bother a fully grown ninja just yet.

It was about that time that there was a quiet popping noise, and Tsunade suddenly appeared right behind Nawaki. "Boo," she said quietly, right in his ear.

Nawaki jumped right out of his skin, completely caught off guard, and Tsunade proceeded to cackle at him. "Happy birthday," she smiled widely.

"Tsunade!" Nawaki huffed, taking a moment to his breath. He got over the shock soon enough though, and enveloped her in a big hug. I was right behind him, thrilled to see my older cousin back in the village again.

"I thought you weren't supposed to be back for a while," I said, drinking in our little reunion. Tsunade looked well, for someone who must've just gotten back from the battle field. She must've stopped by her house on the way over here, because she had changed out of her flak jacket into a regular white shirt and red shorts. I didn't see a scratch on her actually.

"We completed our last mission ahead of schedule," Tsunade explained with a shrug. "You didn't think I was going to miss my brother's birthday did you?"

"I'm not a kid anymore, nee-chan. You don't have to still be here to celebrate my birthday every year," Nawaki crossed his arms.

"Yeah right, you still look like a kid to me," Tsunade snorted. "But anyways, I hope I'm not disrupting your day at the park Natsuki-chan. I wanted to catch you two now so I could give Nawaki his birthday present."

"Present?" Nawaki eyed her curiously.

She nodded, pulling a box out from behind her back. I peered over at it, suddenly anxious, while Nawaki took it from his sister.

"Wanna help me open it Natsuki?" he asked me. I feigned excitement as best I could and pulled at the ribbon that was tied decoratively on top. Then I slipped off the lid to reveal a shining blue crystal necklace. Nawaki practically squealed when he saw it, and immediately launched himself at Tsunade.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" he said excitedly. I blinked at it, feeling the dread build up in my stomach immediately.

"You like it? I thought it'd suit you better than me. You know what it is right?" Tsunade was blushing a little at her brother's exuberant reaction.

"Yeah it's Grandpa's necklace," he nodded. "It's perfect! I'm going to wear it and protect the village, just like he did."

My eyes were starting to itch, and my throat felt thick.

"I'm going to be just like him. One day, I'll even be the best Hokage ever!" Nawaki finished.

"Well you've got to work hard to get there okay? Wear that necklace with pride, and live up to it," Tsunade smiled at him.

"I will!"

"Oh and I've got another present too. Take off your headband," she instructed. When he did so, she leaned forward and kissed him in the spot where the leaf symbol usually rested. It was a soft moment. Tsunade rarely ever let us see this tender side of her. Usually it was hidden behind a lot of sarcasm, but I guess there was just something special about today.

Nawaki grinned proudly as he pulled the necklace over his head. He was wearing both of his sisters presents with quite a bit of pride.

"Hey Natsuki-chan, are you okay?" Tsunade had looked over at me and seemed to have noticed that I wasn't doing so hot. I looked up at her, fumbling for some rational thing to say. There wasn't a good reason for me to be upset right now. Plus, I knew that if I tried to speak, I was just going to start crying. This wasn't good.

Nawaki frowned, trotted over, and scooped me up in his arms. Having him closer was both bad and good at the same time. "Come on Nat," he said carefully. "Did something scare you?"

Before they could coax a response out of me though, they were distracted. A girl with red paint on her cheeks, and a puppy in her hood was running towards us from down the road shouting Nawaki's name at the top of her lungs.

"Nawaki-kun!" she gasped when she caught up to us. "Sensei needs to see you right now. We're being deployed."

"Right now?" Nawaki said, looking torn.

"Yeah, um. Sorry if I'm interrupting your birthday party," she said looking at Tsunade and I.

"It's okay! If they need us to fight, then we've got to help them out as much as possible," Nawaki nodded. He turned to us. "Looks like I've got too go."

"Be careful please," I squeaked quietly.

"I've got my necklace now. There's no way they're gonna be able to stop me!" He gave me a thumbs up too, but there wasn't a thing he was going to be able to say that would make me feel better.

I watched him disappear down the road with Tsunade holding my hand, and then the waiting began.

Tsunade spent the rest of the day with me in Nawaki's wake. We went through all the motions- hanging out in the park, going to get a treat afterwards, she even took me to the book store. My heart wasn't in any of it though. I felt like a shell of my normal self. Every time Tsunade tried to get me smiling, I just couldn't do it. At least I could tell her the truth now though.

"Alright squirt. I give up. What's wrong?" she asked.

"I'm worried about Nawaki-nii," I said. She sighed.

"It must be hard being stuck in the village with all of us gone, huh?" she said, poking my stomach. "But Nawaki is a genin now. He's going to help protect the village like the rest of us. Try not to think about it too much. Nawaki might look like a twerp right now, but they're sending him out with some really strong shinobi. They'll keep him safe."

"Yeah? Shinobi like who?" I asked, feeling a little bitter.

"Well, do you know who the commander of the third cohort is?"

I shook my head.

"It's a man named Sakumo Hatake. They call him the White Fang. He'll be watching Nawaki's back," Tsunade smiled.

Hatake... He was Kakashi's father. That calmed me down a little bit. It was good to know that Nawaki was working under someone so famous and with such good values. Still, that didn't mean he was going to be okay.

The rest of the day passed slowly. Then when I went to bed that night, I didn't get a wink of sleep. I spent the following morning staring blankly at the pages of my latest book. Asuma and Isamu probably noticed, but I was too anxious to care.

The news finally came a little bit after lunch. Biwako came home from the hospital early, looking unusually grim. When she stepped into the house the boys quieted, and turned to her confused. I knew before she even opened her mouth what she was there for.

"Natsuki-chan," she said softly. "It's Nawaki."


Arc Title and Chapter Quote from song Diet Soda Society by The Maine


A/N Well this chapter took longer than expected to write. I had some trouble with the middle parts, and honestly, I'm still not entirely happy with it. I think that's just sort of part of the territory right now though (writing a 3 year old whose internally 20 is a lot harder than expected). It'll get easier once Natsuki's a little older.

Anyways, just so you know updates are definitely going to be coming slower now. School has started back up, and I am going to be crushed under the weight of a LOT of work soon. My goal is going to be an update every 2-3 weeks from now on. But that'll vary based on my day to day work load.

So yeah, thank you to everyone who left a review, remember to leave another one :).

Until Next Time