And Setsuna awoke. She stared out her window, dazed and distant.
Another dream of her past self.
One could call her crazy, she supposed, for believing that she could remember her past lives and make deals with the Shinigami. However, Setsuna knew the truth.
She had been (was, is) Harry Potter in one of her past lives, and she had been the Master of Death. And the older she grew, the more her past and her present merged, blurring into one.
Her past as Harry Potter had granted her many gifts and much knowledge that she should not have. That was unnatural. But she was Namikaze-Uzumaki Setsuna now, not Harry Potter. (And yet they were one and the same.)
She drifted away from the bed and began to get ready for the day.
-a-
Namikaze Minato knew he wasn't a good man. No matter what the citizens of Konoha thought, he knew himself, and he knew it to be true.
Good men wouldn't flinch at the sight of their only daughter (who looked so much like Kushina it hurt), would not turn a blind eye to the neglect that she suffered at the hands of the villagers (but never abuse, no, even he would not allow that), would not blame their daughter for her mother's death ("Not for you. For your daughter." When would he understand?), would not sometimes look at their daughter with fear (who, no, what was she for the Shinigami to do such a thing for her?) because of her eccentricities (connected to death, the priests whispered fearfully - is that why the Shinigami had smiled at her?). Good men would not deny any relation to their daughter (a long lost cousin entrusted her to Kushina when they died - and wasn't that ironic? Kushina had entrusted her to Minato when she died).
Good men didn't do these things to their daughter who they loved.
Because Minato loved Setsuna. How could he not? With Kushina's hair and eye colour, god, she looked so much like Kushina it hurthurthurt and Minato can still remember how eagerly he had looked forward to Setsuna's birth -
And wasn't that funny? That despite all that love, he hated her just as much?
No, Minato was not a good man. (and he never would be again.)
-a-
It was just another day at the Academy. Screaming kids, loud bangs from the teacher who struggled to control them, nagging mothers, and the continual growth of a Uchiha's fanclub.
Joy.
Nara Shikamaru couldn't help but find it all tiring. He was starting his last year of class at the academy, but his mother still felt the need to nag like it was his first.
Honestly, the Academy was just too troublesome.
"Yeah yeah, I got it all." Shikamaru dismissively replied. "I'll be fine, Mom. Class is starting soon."
"Then why are you still here?! Go to class! I will not have my child be late on the first day of his last year!" His mother smacked his head, and Shikamaru bit back a snarky comment. He was already resigned to her ridiculous ways. He continued grumbling to himself as he walked to class, rubbing his aching ways.
As he sat down, eyes dead and interest at an all time low, he wondered why he had to come at all. Half of this stuff would probably never be applicable in real life, not to mention most of it was stuff he'd already learned at home. Unwillingly, he tuned back into the lecture when Iruka-sensei began shouting again.
Oh, he was just reprimanding Setsuna again.
He snickered, finding the fact that Iruka-sensei reprimanded Setsuna for not paying attention even as she continued to do it hilarious. She was just nodding at random times to make it seem as if she were paying attention.
Iruka threw his hands up in defeat, huffing, and the whole class laughed at him. They had long accepted the redhead's distracted behaviour as normal, and were merely waiting for their sensei to do the same, even if it looked like he never would.
Shikamaru turned his attention back to the redhead, observing her. The butterflies flocked to her, as usual. Along with her usual battle kimono and fan, she was quite a sight. Her long red hair, an object of much envy and thus teasing, flowed down her back, the crimson strands decorated with a crown of trailing butterflies. No one knew exactly why the butterflies were so attracted to the girl, but most speculated that it was a kekkei genkai. The girl in question never answered, only smiling mysteriously.
Shikamaru wondered why she looked so sad about the butterflies. Didn't girls normally like those things?
"She always seems kind of sad." Choji brought up after class, during lunch.
"Huh?" Shikamaru blinked. That was out of the blue. He could guess who he was talking about, of course, but the fact that he brought it up so randomly was a little startling.
"Setsuna-san." Choji explained, nodding to her figure a ways away. "I saw you studying her earlier. Do you think we should be friends with her? I don't ever see her with anyone."
It was true, after all. She had transferred in about halfway through their Academy years, and after the initial hype about her being a ward of the Hokage died down, she had just blended in. It was kind of impressive, really, the way that no one really paid attention to her, other than some occasional teasing comments, despite how much she should've stuck out. She should really be garnering more attention, negative or otherwise. His eyes narrowed for a second. It was weird that they all kind of… ignored her, even him, as if she barely existed. Iruka-sensei lectured Shikamaru much more despite the fact that he knew Setsuna paid just as much, or even less, attention as him, and much more blatantly too. He'd usually never spare much thought about her, but today was different for some reason.
Shikamaru sighed. He honestly thought that socializing was bothersome and socializing with females even more so, but Choji wanted to. He didn't say it, but Shikamaru knew he was the kind of guy that had too big of a heart for his own good. Plus, something about Setsuna had caught his attention, and the rarity of that occurring made this much more fascinating.
"Let's go say hi then." Shikamaru sighed yet again as he got up, hiding his interest under a blanket of grumbles and complaints. At least she seemed less troublesome than most females he knew.
Choji brightened, and shyly followed after him.
"Hey." Shikamaru grunted as he flopped gracelessly onto the ground. Choji smiled at the girl, who had turned away from her butterflies to watch them. Somehow, even though she was looking right at them, she seemed to be gazing through them and at something no one else could see.
"I hope you don't mind us sitting here." Choji said, trying to make up for his friend's uncaring behaviour.
"No, not at all. Feel free to sit wherever you'd like." The girl replied, voice soft and dreamy. Her gaze sharpened, focusing on them and not through them.
They felt slightly unnerved at the intense stare, not used to the girl focusing her gaze. It felt as if she could see all of their secrets, see through any facades that they used.
She watched them for a bit longer, seemingly analyzing and sizing them up. She then relaxed (when had she tensed?) and offered them a dreamy smile.
"I do hope we will become friends in the future," She commented as if in reply to an unspoken question.
Shikamaru and Choji merely moved past some of her more startling traits, taking them in stride.
"Hm. Troublesome." Shikamaru replied first, though Setsuna seemed to realize that it was not a rejection, but a grudging acceptance.
"Me too, Setsuna-san." Choji agreed.
The smile she gave them was nothing like the smile from before. It was a bright grin, full of hope and sunshine. It was completely unexpected from the normally dazed girl, and it captivated the two boys.
Shikamaru was further intrigued by the promise of hidden depths.
He did love a good puzzle, and Setsuna had all the makings of an exceptional one.
AN: Sorry for the crazy parenthesis action. It's supposed to be that voice in your head that you barely acknowledge, that almost subconscious voice that speaks the truths you normally shy from and lie about, or even things that the characters don't really notice on a super conscious level, if that makes sense. I'm just trying to play around with my writing style right now, I guess.
