January 10, 2004
11:34 AM
Westchester
Sasuke had done the cheek swab thing after some introductions and a short lecture on why he should or shouldn't agree to it (he agreed), and then Dr. Frost had (telepathically) called for one of the slightly older students to come and show him where the permanent child residents were playing so he could hang out with them for a bit. Sasuke would have complained a bit, had his understanding of their conversation extended any further than every fifth word. As it was, he didn't really understand what was being said, let alone the implications (he was eight, after all), and agreed to go see the other kids as a result.
Ororo looked a lot like the Kaminari no Kuni residents Sasuke knew about. Unlike when he first came to the US, Sasuke now knew what racial diversity meant to the rest of the world, and how it worked (not that it explained anything about racial diversity on the Hidden Continent, but Tony said nothing made sense at home, so Sasuke didn't bother worrying). But Ororo had both naturally pale hair and really dark skin, which wasn't common outside Kaminari no Kuni at all, and Sasuke had to keep reminding himself not to ask her about it, because it might be a thing that had to do with her being a mutant or whatever, and asking people about that sort of thing was apparently rude.
(Tony hadn't been completely clear on why, but he had told Sasuke to be careful about it.)
"So, Sasuke, right? How old are you?"
"Eight."
"Huh, okay. I'm fifteen, if you wanted to know. If you're eight, then… well, Anna Marie and Kurt are about your age. Anna Marie's eight, and Kurt's only a year older than her, so you shouldn't have too much trouble on that front." Ororo thought it over for a few seconds. "Mm… don't touch any of Anna Marie's exposed skin, okay? And don't stare at Kurt. Those are the only special rules for them."
"…Exposed skin?" Sasuke asked, having no idea what the first word meant.
"Just don't touch her skin. She wears gloves and long clothes, so it shouldn't be a big problem, but just so you know."
"Why not?"
"Because you might die." Ororo said lightly, smiling down at him. "Some mutant powers have some unfortunate side-effects. Anna Marie can't control hers well enough yet. That's part of why she's here. That's part of why any of us come here."
"Because you hurt people?"
"Not on purpose, but yes, part of it is because we sometimes hurt people. Mutant powers are almost always dangerous somehow. Sometimes the danger is to other people. Usually, though, the danger is to us. People see a mutant, they get scared, they get angry, they get dangerous. Most of the kids here are here to avoid getting hurt in the outside world, to learn to control their powers, or both." Ororo still faced forward, but kept Sasuke in her peripherals, enough that she evidently caught sight of his expression. "What's wrong?"
"That sounds a lot like what happened to the kekkei genkai clans in Mizu no Kuni." Sasuke said, biting his lip.
"The what clans in the what-now?"
"Kekkei genkai is, ah… bloodline limits, I think? Mizu no Kuni is Country of Water." Sasuke kept rolling with the first bit; he knew this sort of thing. "Kekkei Genkai are why Uncle Tony is here, 'cause he thinks they might have something to do with mutant powers."
"Uh-huh. And how do they work?" Ororo checked inside one of the rooms. Empty again; worse still, the windows were heavily curtained. She quickly closed the door
"Kekkei Genkai? Um… every ninja can use chakra to do things that civilians can't, but there are special things that only certain families can do. Some of that stuff is just because they pass down secrets, but some of it is impossible without being part of that family. Like… like doujutsu. Eye techniques." Sasuke didn't want to talk about the Sharingan, but it wasn't like there were many secrets about Konoha's other major doujutsu, not anywhere that knew about ninjas, anyway. "There's a clan back home, the Hyuuga. Their eyes are completely white, but if they push chakra in their eyes, they can see through things, and… and other things. I don't really know the other things. I think they might be able to see how chakra moves inside people's bodies, though."
"That's… interesting." Ororo probably thought it was weird too, Sasuke guessed, just like Uncle Tony and the rest of the adults. "And what does this have to do with this Country of Water?"
"There were some kekkei genkai clans that people were scared of, because they were very dangerous in the war. The civilians eventually got angry and blamed them for all the bad stuff that happened, and there were a few clans where everybody was killed because of that." Sasuke hadn't ever met anybody that had lived through this sort of thing, but he'd asked in school about other clans that might have gone through that sort of thing, because of what had happened to his family.
The library had told him everything that Iruka-sensei wouldn't.
(The Yuki. The Kaguya. The Hozuki. Obliterated, all. No known survivors for any of them.)
"That's… pretty similar, yeah. That why you're here with your uncle? You got one of these powers?"
"Yeah. It does not work yet. It is called Sharingan." Sasuke shrugged, trying to pretend it didn't mean anything to him. "I can do other things, though. Other things that need chakra, that any ninja can do if they try to learn."
"Yeah? Like what?" Ororo stood in the middle of the foyer, hands on her hips, glad that Sasuke hadn't gotten bored and started complaining yet. Seriously, where were those kids?
"I can breathe fire." Sasuke said, quickly drawing Ororo's attention because what. "And I can look like other people, but that is just illusion, and I can only do it for a short time."
"You're saying any ninja can do this?" Ororo asked, doing her best not to turn it into a demand. If there was an entire continent of people that could do that sort of thing.
"Most ninjas can do henge. Only people with chakra that is already like fire can do Katon jutsu." Sasuke did not know how to say 'technique' or 'transformation' or 'nature.'
"That's kind of scary, kid." And it really was.
"Not a lot of people leave." Sasuke said, seemingly figuring out why Ororo was saying that. "Everybody's too busy fighting each other to fight people from the outside."
"Fair enough." Ororo finally gave up. "Okay, let's try outside."
Once outside (Sasuke didn't volunteer any more information, and Ororo didn't bother to ask), Ororo cupped her hands around her mouth and yelled. "Kurt! Anna Marie! Get over here!"
The pitter-patter of feet on cement could be heard, and around the corner popped three kids. One was visibly a few years older than Sasuke, and was wearing a pair of sunglasses and a dungy brown leather jacket. The two kids that followed him were closer to Sasuke's age. The girl in the green dress had brown hair with weird white bangs, and long sleeves and gloves (Sasuke guessed this was Anna Marie, based on what Ororo had said). The one that drew his attention quickest, however, was the boy in the yellow shirt, who was covered in blue fur and had eyes that were a bright, bright yellow.
"Ah, petite prêtresse, I thought I heard your dulcet tones." The boy in the brown jacket said, grinning. "A new student, then?"
"No, he's just visiting. Stark's kid, remember? We both signed the papers. I didn't know you were taking care of these two."
"You know the rules. They wanted to go outside, but knew the professor would get mad if they didn't have an older student or a teacher there with them. I didn't mind, so we've been playing in the snow for the past few minutes."
"Still, I rather wish someone had told me where you'd gone. I spent too much time looking for you guys." Ororo gestured at the three permanent residents to come closer. "Sasuke, these are three of the students here at Xavier's. The one in the jacket is Remy LeBeau; he's a few years older than you—"
"Twelve, specifically." The boy in question interrupted, easy grin never leaving his face.
"—so I don't think you want to bother with him. The other two… kids, introduce yourselves."
The girl waved at Sasuke. "I'm Anna Marie. This is my brother Kurt."
A blue tail flicked into view, and then just as quickly out of sight. Sasuke tried not to glance at it.
"Sasuke." Last names weren't important here.
"You a mutant?" Anna Marie asked, head tilted.
"I am a ninja." Americans knew that word much more than 'shinobi.'
"So you do the sneaky stuff?"
"Not yet. But I can fight, and throw kunai and shuriken, and I can do some ninjutsu."
"What's that?" Anna Marie seemed to be the mouthpiece for the siblings, while Kurt hung around behind her, watching Sasuke with careful eyes. Ororo and Remy had drifted off, having a discussion about a class the two shared, but staying within sight.
"Um… things that use chakra. Like… like an illusion that makes me look like someone else, or breathing fire." Sasuke stuck his hands in his pockets. It was warm for January, but it was still a little chilly. Still, he had gloves and a thick coat; it was (mostly) enough.
"Really?" Anna Marie asked, eyes widening. She glanced at her brother, and then turned back to Sasuke, eyes narrowing. "You sure you ain't a mutant?"
Sasuke blinked once. Twice. "What is… 'ain't'?"
"It is a way of saying 'isn't' or 'aren't' or 'am not' that is used in certain American dialects." Kurt said, his accent standing out even to Sasuke, who hadn't been living with Tony all that long. Then again, the other three students all had accents of their own (not that Sasuke could tell what they were, yet), so this wasn't a particularly odd development.
"Ah. I… no, I am not. Any ninja back home can learn ninjutsu if they bother to try."
"That's weird," Anna Marie declared after a second. "But it's kind of cool. Can you show us?"
"Ano…" Sasuke's brain shorted out. He wasn't allowed to use Katon at Tony's place, due to the risk of drawing attention (and setting something on fire). It was colder here, though, and he was pretty sure he'd seen enough open spaces that a technique aimed at the sky wouldn't be too much of a risk. Still, he didn't want to risk annoying the people here. "I can show you henge?"
"'Kay." Anna Marie nodded, and promptly sat down on the thankfully dry ground. Kurt did the same after a second, sitting behind her like a particularly odd shadow, like the independent shadow in that movie Tony had showed him, Peter Pan.
There were only three handsigns, but Sasuke was still pretty new to this technique, so he had to focus, and choose someone to imitate. After a few seconds, he decided on a dead cousin (of course he was dead; they all were, except Uncle Tony). Shisui had been nice, and had always given Sasuke little chocolates and such when they'd seen each other. "Henge no Jutsu!"
The image stayed in the air, more or less opaque for about three seconds, and then fell apart. Dutifully, Anna Marie and Kurt clapped from their places on the ground, loud and fast. From the other side of the courtyard, Ororo and Remy did the same; they'd apparently been watching as well.
"Now the fire!" Anna Marie ordered, hands pressing down on the ground beside her.
"I would suggest the basketball court for that." Ororo called. "And maybe wait a while so that we can ask one of the teachers to be on hand in case something goes wrong?"
"I can make it go up instead of into the grass!" Sasuke argued. Even though he'd been planning on suggesting something very similar, the fact that someone older was now the one suggesting it made the suggestion almost immediately distasteful. "And I can make it small or big, if I need to!"
"That's great, but it's still fire." Ororo reminded him. "You might have awesome control, but you're still a little kid, and as much as I may seem like one to some of you kids, I'm still not an adult, and all the adults are busy right now. And no, Anna Marie, not even if I can make it rain so that the fire goes away. So no fire until later. How about you explore the school instead. Show him the library?"
"I don't want to go to the library right now. Kitty's not here, so… oh! We can go see David!" Anna Marie suggested, eyes lighting up. Kurt brightened next to her and nodded along vigorously "Can we go see David? Please? We'll wear the neat-o helmets and everything, honest!"
Ororo bit her lip, visibly resisted the urge to glance at Remy (the only person even near her age there), and sighed. "Fine. But you have to wear the helmets, okay?"
"Uh-huh. C'mon, Sasuke. I'll show you where it is." Anna Marie scrambled to her feet and ran off. Sasuke was thankful she hadn't grabbed his arm the way the girls back home in Konoha would have, though he realized, after a few seconds, that it was probably because she didn't like touching people because of the whole death thing.
"David's room is over here." Anna Marie lead them inside and over to a sturdy door with a keypad next to the handle. "There's another door inside. The neat-o helmets are really important, so there's two doors to make sure people don't steal 'em, but we can't see David without 'em, because his mutant powers came in too early."
"What do you mean?" Sasuke watched as Anna Marie typed in a code and pulled the door open with Kurt's help. There was a small room beyond it, seemingly empty save for the door at the other end, and a keypad set into the metal wall.
"David can read minds, anyone in the room, like the 'fessor, but he does something like me, where he sees everything a person's ever known, and gets all their skills, and everything they know. But he's too little for all that to fit in his head, like I am, and he can't make it stop just by wearing clothes and gloves, so we gotta wear neat-o helmets when we're in the room with him, and he's gotta wear a special inside-out neat-o helmet when he goes out." She closed the door on herself, Kurt, Sasuke, and Ororo; Remy waved goodbye and left to go to the library, whistling all the way. As soon as the door closed, several compartments in the walls opened up and revealed the helmets they'd been talking about. Anna Marie handed one of the funny-looking helmets over to Sasuke, and he carefully put it on. "Ororo, I forgot; why do we call 'em neat-o helmets?"
"Because the first person to wear a helmet like this was the Professor's old friend, who went by the name 'Magneto' at one point." Ororo explained, slipping on one of the helmets as well. "Remember, we can't leave the room until we put these back where they came from, alright?"
"I know, Ororo." Anna Marie rolled her eyes.
"Sasuke doesn't."
"Yeah, yeah, okay." Anna Marie pressed a button on the second door, bouncing on her toes as the door opened. "Hey David!"
David, Sasuke observed, was small. His skin was brown, like Ororo and Rhodey and people from Kaminari no Kui ('You can just say that a person is black, or African American, you know,' Tony had told him, but it hadn't really sunk in). He was small, maybe five years old, and had very short hair. His room was darker than Sasuke had expected, and there were no windows, which probably meant that the walls were lined with something like the neat-o helmets. There was a computer in one corner, and judging by the wearing on the space bar (Shinobi must pay attention to everything around them, no matter how small the detail, even in a non-hostile situation, Iruka had lectured), it saw a lot of use, as did the worn books on the shelves.
"Hello, Anna Marie, Kurt, Ororo. Who is this?"
David's eyes were also scarily intelligent, and looked like they belonged on someone much older.
"Hey, David! This is Sasuke. He's here 'cause his uncle wants to talk to the grown-ups about X-gene stuff and ninjas." Anna Marie threw herself onto the bed, kicking her legs back and forth. Kurt sat down on the floor next to her. "He's just gonna be here for a couple hours, and I didn't want to go to the library, so we decided to come here."
David nodded, and his eyes slid over to Sasuke. He pursed his lips. "I think I can… Konnichiwa, Sasuke-san. Ogenki desu ka?"
Sasuke blinked, surprised, but then calmed down. It was probably just part of the power, right? David had met someone that knew Japanese, and now he knew it too. Right. That made sense. "Daijoubu."
"Guys, don't do that, please?" Anna Marie pouted. "C'mon, it's not like Kurt and I talk in German to confuse you."
"That is because I know German as well." David countered.
"They don't do it to me, either, and I don't speak German." Ororo pointed out.
"But you do it to make yourself feel better sometimes, right?" David pressed, leaning forward where he was seated in the computer chair. Ororo had taken up a position by the door, while Sasuke had chosen to take a seat on the floor by the bookcase. "Or because English is too difficult?"
"I do, yes." Kurt answered with a nod, voice soft again. It was funny, because Sasuke was pretty sure that Kurt spoke English better than Anna Marie did.
"Yeah, but we do it when we're alone and it ain't botherin' nobody." Anna Marie continued to protest.
"Maybe." David allowed, and then swung from one side to the other in his swivel chair. "You're here, now. What do you want to do?"
"Uh…" Anna Marie apparently hadn't thought that far ahead. "You got Battleship, right?"
"I do."
And the rest of the afternoon was wasted away on playing board games with a boy that Sasuke was pretty sure was ten times smarter than even Itachi.
