"It would be nice to live in a kind world without any fear, without any troubles, without hurting anybody, without ever being hurt; only doing the right thing. I wish I could reach this kind world by the shortest path possible." ~Fruits Baskets
.34
In the end, I never really considered this world to be real. I think that was the problem. Ultimately the people were just made up, fictional characters. We'd already been over this. But I think perhaps I need to expand upon the notion.
The displacement.
I didn't believe any of them to really be real. This was all just a game to me.
Even Naruto. My own brother, the one I'd sworn to do anything for. To protect. He wasn't real. Just another character. Sure I loved him, but he wasn't real. Not really.
None of this was real. Living and dying and living again it warped your sense of reality. Death was supposed to finite.. and yet here we were. It couldn't be real, the consequences alone.
I drew in a breath, opening my eyes to stare ahead down the long dark hallway. There weren't consequences for your actions if you didn't believe them to really matter.
"That is an interesting prospect." His voice breaks through my train of thought. He'd been so quiet I'd almost forgotten he was there.
I ignore his presence in my mind-scape for a moment longer. It wasn't that I was avoiding him, no I'd asked for the mind walk to take place. It was more along the lines of stalling which mind you wasn't the same as ignoring.
A while ago I'd come to the realization that everything had changed because of me and the path I'd chosen all those years ago. And with these changes rose unrelenting uncertainty. There was only one path before me now. I had to face the facts. I had to tell the truth.
The time for lies was well past over…
If I wanted anything to work out now I had to be honest. With the people around me but most of all myself.
The truth was simple. It usually was..
This was real. It always had been, I had just been trying to deceive myself again. I never really like the truth.
Truth is… I'm scared.
Of things to come. Of all the uncertainties. Of the many paths change could take. I don't want to have this responsibility, but I did. I didn't want this to be real, yet it was.
And this was the ultimate conclusion I'd come to. I never wanted this to happen, and yet here I stood. At the doorway of uncertainty staring down the consequences of my own carelessness.
Great. Just great. I took a breath, stalled for a moment longer.
Everything was going to change. Safe to say shit was about to hit the fan, and it would hit it hard.
"What's interesting about it? The notion itself? The psychology? What it says about my own mental state? Or even the morality of it? Please be a little more specific Inoichi-sama." He actually chuckles at my response but there is a darkness to it. It's not the usual lighthearted laugh you expected from the man.
He ignores my rebuttal and instead asks his own question. Rude.
"What's down this hallway?" I look away from him staring back down the dark hallway. A shudder passes involuntarily over me. My arms wrap around myself instinctively.
Nightmares….
No.. that's not quite right.
"Memories of the life I lived before this one."
…
He takes a moment. To contemplate the path that lead them to here. Standing at the entrance of a dark decrepit hallway. Inoichi considers the exceptionally immaculate pristine mindscape. Honestly despite how she came across on the outside, how it appeared as if she were fractured and falling apart her mind did not replicate that sense. It was why she kept passing the mental health checks.
She could compartmentalize better than most of the jonin core. Whatever was causing problems got neatly tucked behind a door that she never looked at again. Deal with it and move one.
Except this one hallway in her mind. The appearance reminded Inoichi of a hospital ward that had fallen to ruin, abandoned but not quite forgotten. Avoided.
Interesting.
There weren't consequences for your actions if you didn't believe them to really matter. He caught the tail end of her train of thought, it was louder than the rest easier to pick out.
"That's an interesting prospect." He muses thoughtfully looking down at the small statutes girl. He's briefly reminded of his own daughter.
Except Mitomi was the smallest of their age group. Years of neglect and lack of proper care had stunted her growth. She'd always sit right under average. What she lacks in stature she made up for with sheer ability and force of will.
If the state of this one hallway was anything to go off of. He'd suspected the where they started was the beginning but looking down this dark hallway he realizes that this is where she's come from.
That this is the beginning.
He waits for her to respond. She's quiet looking down at her feet. He'll give her credit here for everything that was going on she was very composed. He could see her discomfort but she held herself together effortlessly. With a practiced ease.
Interesting.
When she does, it's with questions, the answer not straight in the slightest. Inoichi doesn't bother trying to answer any of them, he hasn't the time to be more specific. Instead he redirects. Something he was rather good at doing.
He still needed answers from her after all. Needed to understand the why.
"What's down this hallway?" She takes her eyes off him a shudder passes over her as if she'd suddenly caught a chill. Her eyes glaze over as she stares down the dark hallway.
When she speaks her voice has hollowed out. It holds no race of emotion or feeling. Her words take a moment to register, the shock value alone, it takes a moment to fully grasp their depth. Of what exactly they mean for things to come.
"Memories of a life I lived before this on." Void of feeling yet spoken with such conviction it provoked a sense of dread in him. To be so sure. So confident of something that sounded so absurd.
And yet… yet it made so much sense…
Reincarnation was real. The proof right before him. Uzumaki Mitomi had once been someone else. Someone who had apparently known all about them.
She hadn't been lying.
It was undeniable. The evidence had been right before them all this time. They'd all been too blinded to notice.
"Let's take a walk." He muses and makes a move to head down the dark hallway. She freezes in her place closing her eyes tight for a moment. Eyes reopen and all she does is nod her head takes a hesitant step forward.
But he still needed to see it for himself. To be sure this gut feeling he had wasn't wrong. He needed to see just how far her knowledge went. Just how much she knew.
And what exactly she'd been planning on using that information for.
XOXOX
And the shoe drops… the entire world view is about the change. So much more is going to happen. Cannon? What's that? Just a measly thing of the past.
Drastic huh? I'm sure this wasn't what you expected to happen. But I did warn you that the truth would come out lol!XD
Anyway, thank you for your kind reviews and your continued support of this story!! It means the world to me! You guys rock!
Also, if you are interested I have a Instagram where I have drawn a few drawings of Mitomi on. It's under my real name so if you'd be interested in seeing it PM me and I'll send you the link :)
Have a wonderful day!!
Sincerely, LaRae