-2-
Similar Eyes
"I under stand...I'm sure Aisako-chan was only playing around...you know how children are. It's not like she could do anything to hurt them." Mommy said, sitting across from the mothers of the three girls. They hadn't played near my house for almost a week. I thought that would be the last of them, but earlier today, Little Leader's Mother came pounding on the door.
Mommy had looked terrified for a moment. Was it bad I found it hilarious? I don't think it is.
It was hot, and the sand kept blowing through the cracks in our walls. We really needed to get those fixed, but until Daddy came home, there wasn't any real way for us to pay for it.
Little Leader's Mom was a tall lady with pretty blond hair, just like her daughter, and she had brown eyes. She didn't look very happy, but she had what looked like laugh lines. She still looked like a bitch though.
The mothers of the other two were just as dull and unnoticeable as their daughters. My guess was that the blond kept them around to make her look better. Little Leader Bitch certainly didn't 'roll far overnight'. Stupid Sand.
" 'Only playing'?! That little monster chased my- our daughters across the village! They wouldn't have made it home if it weren't for some shinobi finding them. They have nightmares!"
"Really." Mommy said in a dry tone, "Didn't you do the same thing to that poor boy you married?"
"That's different! I love Takashi." The wicked Bitch of Suna protested, slamming her hand down on the table, "Your brat is just being a creep."
"I'll disagree with you on the first point." Mommy said, casting me a look from the corner of her amber eyes, which narrowed as she stared. I ducked my head and smiled guiltily.
So, I hadn't thought it through. Can you blame me? It was my first time outside without Mommy. Well...this Mommy. My old mom, from my first life, which I affectionately called 'The Test Drive 0.1', let me run around all the time...sure I was on a leash for a while, but eventually, she had let me run around and be free as a bird. I was never one for sitting still...I needed to move. One of the things I couldn't stand was moving slowly, or not at all. It was obvious I loved speeding.
There was another more obvious reason for me to call it The Test Drive 0.1..was because...well. You know.
I crashed and died.
So...this time around...I wouldn't.
Mommy continued to speak, "Although the other two are obvious. You've been obsessed with that poor guy since he showed up. Aisako...she's a bit odd."
Well, if that wasn't a punch in the gut. "Moooommmmy~" I said in a sing song voice, tilting my head. I walked over to her and leaned against her side. I smiled at Leader's mother as sweetly as I could.
"What is it...Ai?" She sounded so awkward about it I almost started laughing. She never called me 'Ai'. Only things like 'you', 'Aisako-san'.
"Who're the pretty ladies?" I asked, staring at the three women. It was time this conversation got back on topic and not how...creepy I was? I wasn't creepy...what did I ever do to them!?
One woman looked flustered, and offered the tiniest hint of a smile. Another looked completely embarrassed by my statement, blushing like a school girl. Leader's Mother looked so disgusted she seemed to gag on her tea.
I glanced up at Mommy and froze, feeling my blood run cold. I looked back at the women and saw the other two shifting awkwardly, one bringing a hand up to her throat. The three seemed to have trouble breathing. It didn't seem life threatening -yet.
Mommy smiled in the same unhinged way I did from time to time. Her head tilted to the side in a way that made her bangs, which were usually tucked behind her ears, fall over her narrowed amber eyes that seemed to glow in the resulting darkness.
"You know Tsubaki, I told you to stay away from me."
Leader's Mother looked panicked, gesturing wildly.
"Um, miss?" I asked, looking at her, tilting my head, just like Mommy, "Moving like that will only take away your breath faster."
Mommy rested a hesitant hand on my head, "Such a helpful little girl I have." She said to me, looking...almost unafraid, before turning back to the trio, "So, Tsubaki-chan, do you think you three can forgive my little girl for playing with your daughters? I swear...she didn't mean to scare them."
The three nodded; desperate for air now. Mommy's hand twitched and the three women instantly got to their feet.
'Charka strings?' I thought, 'Nice.'
"Now then, if I were you three, I'd run to the hospital and go get an antidote for that. You'll suffocate in ten minutes."
When they were gone, I saw Mommy in a different light.
She was kinda...scarier than fuck.
And she was afraid of me!?
She looked down at me and flinched, "S-sorry Aisako-san."
"Mommy...why do you call me that?"
"C-Call you what?"
"Aisako-san? Why don't you call my Aisako-chan anymore?"
"Well...you're a big girl now and-"
"No I'm not." I said, staring at her with narrowed eyes. I spun on my heel.
"Aisako-s- Aisako-chan." Mommy's voice made me stop walking, "Why did you chase them like that?"
"They said you were evil...and they asked for it." I said, before wondering off to my room to play with the little fabric dolls Daddy brought home from one of his missions.
When I was sure she wasn't going to walk in, I couldn't help but smile giddily. Mommy called me Aisako-chan. Sure I had basically told her to, but still...she called me Aisako-chan! It was about damn time!
Daddy was home. A month had passed since I was last allowed outside by myself. Mommy went with me everywhere, but at least she took me to the park now. The other parents would freeze when we walked past them. Then, after a few minutes, one by one, parents would call their children back and leave, until it was just me and Mommy. Sometimes a few other parents would stay, but they'd keep an eye on us.
From what I understood, they were shinobi. You could tell, especially when you looked at the fathers. Most of the time, they were young, very muscular...scars...a lot of them weren't that hard on the eyes.
The moms were young too. Ninjas don't last long...so, they end up having kids as soon as they can.
It made me realize how young my own parents were. Mommy was in her mid-twenties, Daddy a few years older.
Daddy was a handsome man. He had burgundy hair, just like me, that stood up in the same wild way mine does. He was a very tall man, leanly built. In a way, he was like...the Kakashi of Suna. They weren't similar in many ways, but something about him reminded me of the chronically late jounin.
One big similarity was the way Daddy always looked bored. And he was a book worm, but he never touched an Icha-Icha book, from what I'd seen him read. Mostly it was mystery novels or ninja fiction.
I came to realize that no one had tried to write a science fiction in this world. Which was stupid. Sci-fi is life. Science was kinda...primitive here. Chakra fucked things up, sure, but still. They were pretty far behind The Test Drive 0.1 in some ways.
So, they had ninja fiction instead. These were usually stories about some awesome, totally buff ninja genius using a jutsu to travel back in time and save his team, who were all killed when he was only a chuunin.
He had amber eyes too.
"Daddy...why do you have the same eyes as Mommy?" asked him as we sat on a bench by the playground. There was only so much running a kid could do. I really wanted someone to play with. As immature as it was...I was really lonely. None of the other kids would play with me, and I still had no damn clue why.
So far, I had learnt that my dad was a jounin and he had his own team of minions. And Mommy is a crazy bitch. She liked to poison people who came over for tea and hold them down with chakra strings while they were panicking. It was...amusing to watch but...
I kinda wanted a huggy mom, like my first one from the Test Drive 0.1.
"Hm?Well, your mommy and I come from a clan, and we have similar features."
Oh. Gross. Nasty, nasty, nasty. Mommy and Daddy were related.
"Ew."
Daddy looked at me, clearly amused, "We're very distantly related."
Oh yes, as if that was any better. And if they were from the same clan, didn't that mean that Daddy's great, great, great something or other was Mommy's great, great, great something or other? And from there it was just second cousins creating more cousins for those new second cousins?
Clans were nasty! Although...if I remember correctly...in this world, instead of getting bad mutations through inbreeding, they got awesome Blood Limits?
"Sure thing, daddy-cousin." I said, covering my excitement. Maybe we had one of those Limits? I hope it made us fast. I could still run people over...literally.
He flicked me in the back of the head.
"So...do we have a Blood Limit?" I asked, looking up at him in curiosity.
He scoffed. "Nope."
Damn. No awesome Limit.
"If we're from a clan, where's everyone else?"
"Dead. Or in Ame."
Damn. No tragic back story like the Uchiha- Wait. Ame? isn't that where the Almighty Pein-In-The-Ass was from?
"Why are they in Ame?"
"Because that's where our family is from."
Boring. I was waiting for something like...'they were chased out of Suna by the other ninja. Your mother and I managed to talk our way into staying here, so we could raise you in a safe place.'...but no such luck.
"Why are you and Mommy here?"
"You're Mommy needs the dry air." Daddy said, frowning, "Ame is too wet. Her lungs don't like it."
So. Mommy was sick? What a shame.
"Why don't you come home more often?" I asked, changing the subject, much like little kids do.
I was getting good at this acting thing.
"Hm? I'm a shinobi Aisa-chan. I have to go out and train my students."
"I heard other kids talking...their parents with teams don't stay away for weeeeeeeeeeks."
"Well, that's their parents." Daddy said, his voice clipping ever so slightly. He didn't like this topic.
My guess was that the bastard was having an affair. Or he was also part of Suna's version of ANBU...did Suna even have one of those? Maybe he was ANBU having an affair with his commander? He was ordered to have an affair? Or he was having the affair with his commander so he could get a promotion. Nah.
He was a softly. A bit of a nerd.
Pfft. Perhaps he got really, really lost on the road to life.
I noticed someone on the other side of the park, staring off into the distance. It looked like a little boy. He'd leave soon enough.
I needed to say something else. Actually, now that we were away from Mommy...I could finally start manipulating Daddy...not that I wasn't already. It was a bad thing to do, but he was the only person that seemed to give a fuck.
"Is it because you hate me like everyone else?"
"WHAT!?" Daddy jumped back, staring at me with wide eyes, "Why would you even think that?"
I refused to look him in those amber eyes. I fiddled with my hands, touching the tips of my middle fingers together. It was awkward, but it was sorta like I was flipping off god. Or whoever the fuck was in charge of the universe.
My parents thought it was just a weird little habit. I used to do it...back in the Test Drive.
"Mommy doesn't like me."
"Why wouldn't she? You're wonderful."
"She's afraid of me." I replied, looking up at him, looking somewhat pissed off. How could he not notice? Mommy once screamed when I walked into a room behind her. She shattered three plates the day before that.
"Aisako." I ignored him.
"All the other kids won't go near me. Parents keep them away from me. Did...Did I do something bad?"
"Aisako." Oh no. He'd hear me. Every last word. This would either make him side with me, or he'd leave me. I needed to know who was loyal to me now. I didn't need to be betrayed while I was older and in a life-threatening situation. What if...he started hating me, and wanted me gone?
"What did I do? I don't remember doing anything to make them mad..."
"Ai-sa-ko." Daddy said, placing his large hands on my shoulders. He said my name slowly, saying each syllable at a time.
I glared into his eyes, but made sure to look more scared than anything. Not really angry, but wary.
"You're mother chose your name."
I blinked. I had really thought it was his. He was the sort to call a kid Aisako. Mommy was more likely to call me something like...Oniko.
"You're her baby girl. She was so excited to have you. She spent two weeks choosing the paint for your room."
It was a bit like a peach...different shades of yellow red and orange. Sometimes, it felt like I lived inside a festival lantern.
"She and I used to spend hours talking about what you might look like. What your favorite food would be. We could never decide. So, we promised each other."
I looked up at him, feeling vaguely interested.
"We promised that no matter who you were, we'd adore you and love you."
I scoffed. "She calls me Aisako-san. I'm not even a family member to her. I'm a stranger."
"Then maybe, its time we introduced you two? Hm?"
I nearly rolled my eyes. My Daddy was gifted with a main character personality. But he was doomed to never be mentioned in the world's story. If I was lucky, neither would I. Main characters were more likely to be brutally murdered. Like Asuma, Itachi, Sarutobi. If you weren't important, you'd die peacefully.
Wow! I really wasn't expecting so many people to like this story! I was amazed really. 1 community, 8 reviews, 14 favorites and 24 followers!
A big thank you goes out to rotten daydreams, Airedhiell, Sweet Petit, scoobycandy, Kurama831, Himeno Kazehito and xela521 for reviewing!
Because of all the good feedback, I've decided to continue this story for now. I may stop is school gets too busy for me, but I'll try to keep it from that. I would love it if everyone continued to support this story!
