"How am I supposed to make tortillas like this?" I whine as I look at the press on the counter. Ichika snorts from her spot on the floor. Traitor. I hear shuffling on the kitchen window and I look over to see Itsuki sitting on the windowsill.
"I can help you Kiku-chan," he says as he hops from the windowsill to the kitchen counter. I smile at the monkey and pat his head. He gives me an annoyed look but that doesn't stop me from patting his head again. It's adorable. Wait. Is that why everyone is determined to pat me on the head? I puff out my cheeks as Itsuki and Ichika laugh at me.
It's good to hear Itsuki's laugh. He's been clingy since I got back from Kumo. Even some of the shy summons like the bats have been coming around more often since I returned injured. The deer fussed over me and taught me how to dress my wound. Thanks to fast healing the bleeding had stopped by the time I made it back to Uzushiogakure.
Fast healing doesn't stop it from hurting like crazy, though. Having to do everything with my left hand has been so annoying. But Ichika decided to turn it into a training exercise. I've managed to blow up two picnic tables trying to work on simple seals outside. I sigh as I mix the meat in the skillet in front of me.
"What's wrong, hime?" Itsuki asks.
"I'm losing time because of this," I tap the wooden spoon against the skillet and lay it on the spoon rest on the counter. "I was starting to get into a good routine and I managed to screw up."
"You've been focused on your Uzu techniques, techniques you can't use against root unless you know you can kill them," Ichika says.
"Yeah, you did exactly what you were supposed to do, Kiku-chan!" Itsuki says. I still pout as I grab a ball of dough. Itsuki lifts the handle of the tortilla press and I put the ball of dough in the center. He pulls the handle down before pulling it back up and soon I get lost in the act of making tortillas.
It takes a while for me to actually put together my meals for the week. Working with one arm isn't fun. At all. But I've gotten really good at getting into an avocado and making mangú with one hand. The normal weekly meal prep takes double the time it normally does, but I find that I don't really mind it that much. It's nice being able to talk to different summons as they stop by.
It's also nice being able to listen to music from Uzu and actually understand it. Since I haven't been able to train as hard as before, a lot of my training has been light exercise while working on my Uzu. It turns out I learn written things better while being active. Something I wish they had given us the option to do when I was in the academy.
It would have made things so much easier.
"Time for a new CD, hime," Ichika says as I finish up the last of my vegetable prep for the week. I take out the current CD and replace it with another. This time, it's my favorite artist from Uzu. She had just started releasing music in other villages before the village was attacked. I never knew she was from Uzushiogakure before, but I had heard her music in Konoha.
Specifically in the Nara household.
My favorite song has always been a disco medley she performed at her last concert. It was Shikaku's favorite song by her, too. I can't help but dance along to the song throughout the kitchen. Itsuki joins me at points, hanging on my left side and effectively stopping me from working on my meal prep at all.
Everything is perfect.
Until.
A strange feeling comes over me. I vaguely get the sense that I'm home, something I'd felt many times since I first came to the island. But now, now it doesn't really feel like home anymore. It feels like something is missing. I drop the spoon I'm holding and hear it smack against the counter. Ichika is immediately wrapped around me while Itsuki starts fussing with my hair.
"What's wrong Kiku-chan?" Ichika asks as she nuzzles against my side.
"It doesn't feel like home anymore," my voice cracks. I hear the sound of Ai and Ren's hooves against the tile of the kitchen and feel my shoulders drop slightly. "Why does it not feel like home anymore? What did I do wrong?"
"You didn't do anything, mija," Ichika says gently. My eyes burn as I struggle to pick up the spoon again. I'll do anything to distract me from this empty feeling.
"But- but I was fine! I was great! I was happy for once!" I shake my head as I spoon some vegetables into a container. "I felt like I belonged," I whisper.
"Oh Kikuko," Ai says. I hear her walk closer before her head drops on top of mine. I close my eyes and rest the spoon against the dish for a moment. I try to take deep breaths but they come out short and choppy. Ai rubs her head against mine as my shoulders start to shake.
"Home is somewhere where people are thinking of you," Ichika says gently. "You have more than one home, mija."
"But-"
"Kikuko," Ren says softly. I open my eyes and turn to see the deer looking out one of the windows, his eyes cloudy. "You are from two different villages. You are made up of the customs, language, food, and people of two different villages. It is completely normal to feel that you don't belong when you're in just one of those places."
"But I can't be in Konoha and Uzushio at the same time."
"Maybe we can bring some things from Konoha here," Ai says.
"And we will definitely bring many things from Uzushiogakure when we go to Konoha as well," Ichika says.
"But - I - how am I supposed to be the princess of Uzushiogakure when I feel like this? Does it mean I'm not really a good fit to be the princess after all?"
"Hime, you are the princess of Uzushiogakure," Itsuki says.
"No matter what you do, that will always be your title," Ai finishes.
"Uzushiogakure will always be your home, it will always be your village," Ichika says. "Even when you don't really feel like it is."
"It's normal to doubt things like this and I'm sure you will feel this when you go back to Konoha, even with the history of you growing up there," Ren says.
"Can I go to Kumo instead?" I finally say. "Going to Konoha is going to be so troublesome." Ai huffs above me and I feel a small grin on my face.
"It'll be worth it to see that man sweat," Ichika says. I reach over to pet Ichika's head. She always knows what to say.
Itsuki pats the side of my head and I turn to him, only to have him wrap his arms around my neck and bury his head in my neck.
"I'm going to miss you," he says. I feel tears spring to my eyes again and force myself to take a deep breath.
"I'm going to miss you too, Itsuki." I lean my head down and drop it against his shoulder for a second before pulling my head back up. "But I promise I'll always come visit!"
"You better!" He says before he pulls away.
"Just like you better finish up putting your food away," Ichika says as she unwraps herself from me. I pout as the heat goes away but do as I'm told. Ichika's punishments were so much worse than Yoshino's. Even though Yoshino is ten times scarier than Ichika is. I feel the mountain lion's eyes on me and turn back to the task at hand. I swear all the summons can hear my thoughts.
"It's just your face," Ichika says as she lays down on the cool tiled floor. I huff as I struggle to close the container in front of me.
"So mean," I say under my breath. Itsuki cackles in my ear and I roll my eyes. But the familiarity makes the empty feeling in my chest go away. I feel worry creep in on how I'll deal with these things when I get back to Konoha and I'm away from all the summons, but I stop myself, taking a deep breath.
I can worry about that later.
For now, I need to finish my chores or else Ichika's going to make me run around the island fifty times. Again.
"Alright Kiku-chan~" Ichika calls and I groan into my pillow. "You're ready to start training again, hime!" She jumps on my legs and I whine. She laughs at me and pulls the blankets and quilts away from my body. I try to grab another pillow to cover myself but she stops me. She pushes me hard until I fall off the futon onto the hard floor.
"I'm gonna go get attacked again," I say as I push myself off of the floor.
"You're going to get attacked if you don't make it to the training ground in five minutes wil all of your different weapons," Ichika says.
"All of them?" I squeak as I stand up quickly. She laughs as she runs from the room. I frantically start changing into my training outfit, another pair of green pants and a similar crop top to the one I wore to Kumo. I ditched the haori, I grabbed all of my things out of it and put them into seals in my pants. I'll wear another haori that's identical to that one, but I'm not putting seals on the new one.
It's so hard to get blood out of clothing.
I shake my head and focus on grabbing all my weapons. Ryūjin is safely in the seal on my back so I don't have to worry about that. I check my seals. I have my kunai, shuriken, and senbon. I look around the room and grab my tanto from Shisui. I double check the room before nodding to myself and running out of the house.
I make it to the training ground with a few seconds to spare.
"Good job, hime!" Itsuki calls from a nearby tree. I huff out a laugh, bent over with my hands on my knees. I'm really feeling the lack of training for the past couple of weeks.
"Alright, Kiku," Ichika says.
"We're going to start working on non-Uzu techniques," Ichika says.
"Okay," I nod. "But uh, why do I need all my weapons?"
"We're going to see how you perform with each of them," Ren says. "And then we will work on developing skills with each weapon."
"You're going to teach me Konoha techniques, aren't you?" I ask as Ren lays down in the shade.
"Of course," he says. "I want you to be at anbu level by the time you're back in Konoha." I already feel tired at the thought. But I start pulling out my weapons anyways. I line them up in the grass by one of the training posts. First my shuriken, then my kunai, senbon, tanto, and finally I pull Ryūjin from my seal.
"Ryūjin first?" I ask as I stand up.
"Make a clone and we'll test your tanto skills at the same time," Ai says from beside Ren. I do as she says, quickly making a water clone and motioning towards the tanto. The clone picks it up before walking a few feet in front of me.
"Begin," Ichika says. My clone comes towards me with the Tanto immediately ready to strike like the root agent had done. I quickly parry with my sword and jump out of the tanto's range. Soon there's a flurry of clanging, grunts, and screeches of the blades sliding against each other.
But then my clone leaves an opening. My clone is my left side, overcompensating for being right handed. That's how the root agent was able to slice my shoulder. I huff and slice down towards my clone's right shoulder. It dispels immediately and I feel the phantom pain in my shoulder burn for a brief moment.
"Did you see where you're lacking?" Ren asks from the sidelines.
"Yeah," I nod as I try to catch my breath. My monkey waterbottle comes flying from one of the trees and I barely catch it with my left hand as I put Ryūjin back in its shield with my right.
"Nice catch Kiku-hime!" Itsuki calls from his tree. I shake my head and open the cap, gulping down the water. Ichika walks over as I fall back on my butt in the grass. She snorts but drops a scroll to the ground by my feet. She puts her paw on it and after a puff of smoke there's a bento sitting on top of the scroll. I grin at her and quickly open it to steamy mangú, onions, spam, and bacon. I dig into the meal immediately.
Ren and Ai go over different strategies for me to use while fighting with both my tanto and sword. Ren talks through some anbu techniques regarding the tanto that almost makes me too sick to eat. I knew Shinya was a powerful shinobi, but I never knew he was in anbu. I never knew what anbu really did before this. Would I get thrown into anbu one day? Would I ever get promoted to jonin? I know that sensei and Ensui would nominate me, but would anyone else?
"Do you think I'll make jonin?" I ask as I finish the last of my food.
"Of course you will, hime." Ai says from beside Ren. "You're on your way to becoming a sealsmistress, and honestly by Konoha standards you're probably there."
"But I have so much more to learn!"
"Go do your kunai practice then," Ichika says. I cut my eyes over to her and glare. Kunai were my least favorite thing to use. Ever. I groan and force myself to stand up from the grass. I drop the empty bento by the training posts before I walk back and grab my kunai from the grass.
I start throwing my kunai at the training posts. The weight still feels off after all of these years. I know it's not the kunai themselves, they were bought from Hiroto-oji by Shikaku and Yoshino back when we started at the academy. I never used them enough to need new ones.
"How old are those, Kiku?" Ichika asks as I pull them out of the training posts. And now that I look at them, maybe it is time to replace them. I pout as I look down at them. They're the first things that Shikaku and Yoshino gave to me. Naruto had a matching set at one point, but he already got another batch of them when we were in the academy since he used them so often.
"Shikaku and Yoshino bought them for me when I started at the academy," I say as I hook my finger into the hole at the bottom of one of the kunai. I swing it around my finger, the only thing I really liked about a kunai was twirling it.
"You need new kunai," Ichika says. I don't know why I'm so sentimental about these kunai. Maybe it's because I'm going to be away from Konoha for who knows how long. They're the one thing that I've kept my entire shinobi career. "Despite your hatred for them, you're better at using them than your tanto."
"Can I keep them?" I ask quietly. "I'll only use the new ones but-" I don't finish the sentence as I look down at the still spinning kunai.
"Of course you can," Ichika says. "Besides, I was thinking it's time for you to try out another type of kunai."
"Another type of kunai?" I ask as I look up to her.
"Three pronged kunai, they were a traditional weapon in Uzushiogakure."
"The weight is already awkward enough with a regular kunai 'ttbane!" I stop the kunai spinning on my finger and put my hands on my hips. I hear Itsuki's laughter in the tree and force myself not to look up at him and stick my tongue out.
"There's three prongs," Ichika deadpans. "It's more balanced."
"Oh." Ichika snorts before nodding her head towards the rest of my weapons.
"Get your shuriken next." I don't need to be told twice. I drop my kunai back on the ground and pick up my shuriken next. Soon I'm lost in the repetitive motion. Pull my arm up to my shoulder, aim, throw.
"Close your eyes," Ichika says after I've gotten all my shuriken from out of the training post. Ren and Ai have moved from their spots from the shade behind the trading posts. I want to say something sarcastic, but I can't blame them. The last time I'd thrown something with my eyes closed, I ended up almost breaking a window.
I take a deep breath in. Close my eyes. Raise my hand to my shoulder. Aim based on muscle memory. Breathe out. Throw. I squeal when I hear the thunk. I open my eyes to see the shuriken is just barely on the training post. But it's there! I actually hit it this time!
"Again, mija!" Ichika calls, sounding bored. I pout but do as she says. Breathe in. Close eyes. Raise hand. Breathe out. Throw. Thunk. "Again!" Breathe in…
By the time we've repeated this process with all my shuriken three times, I'm able to hit the target in the center.
"Alright, senbon time!" I walk back over to the pile of weapons and drop my shuriken. I reach down and grab the senbon and walk back over towards my throwing spot. I roll my shoulders and try to massage my right one as I walk. Senbon are the trickiest of all of them. Including the kunai. They are so small it's easy to drop them while throwing them.
"We'll do a couple rounds with the senbon and see how you do," Ichika says. I start to carefully throw the senbon at the wooden post. I hear Ichika tut as I start to pull them from the post after I threw them all.
"Close your eyes next time," she says. I feel my shoulders drop. I've grown to hate the disappointed tut that Ichika gives when she thinks I can do something I can't. I listen to her order, though. I close my eyes and throw all my senbon. The bad thing with them is I can't hear when they hit the target. I peek an eye open at the end to see them all in the center rather all over the place like they were when I was looking.
"Oh good, we can start poison soon!" Ai says, obviously excited. I don't pay attention, though. I just stare at the pin cushion of a training post. Did I really do that?