Konoha Noire
Arc 1
Chapter 3
My new mother was sick. And not her usual kind of sick. You know, the type where she had to be carried to the hospital so she could get her stomach pumped. The sick she had was worse than that, and I'm pretty sure it was the cause of her heavy drinking.
Back on Earth, it was always a race between my liver and lungs to see what'd kill me first, with cancer winning by a nose in the end, but this woman was a thousand times worse than I ever was. I had the good grace to only ever drink in a bar or when I was on duty, but never in front of my kids. Hell, I'm only three year's old, lady, what are you doing getting drunk on a weekend? At least wait until it's my bedtime.
Still, Mom of the Year had a better excuse than I did. I'd seen mental illness before; my sister in law used to crack open a few veins every now and again. My brother, being the scummy stock broker that he was, always hoisted her off onto the nearest PHD and went to work that morning anyway, because hey, why start being a good husband so late in the game, right?
And there I go judging him for being a bad husband. Gotta stop doing that before I become a total fucking hypocrite.
At least neither of us were as bad my current father, whoever the hell he is.
Anyway, it was time to do something. Enough was enough.
Once again, Minami found that week's garbage on the door step. It wasn't just her family's garbage, apparently expecting anyone to pick up after themselves around here was a asking for too much. Oh, gross there were even rats in there.
With a sigh, she stepped around the pile, promising herself that she'd come down and clean the mess later. For now she 'had a sister to feed and presumably a drunk mother to keep from doing something even stupider than when she was sober. Not that she was sober much. Not that it helped much when she was.
She gave a polite hello to Ms Tachibana, who was smoking on the stairs again. Ms Tachibana returned the greeting with a tobacco stained smile, and a little, "Having a good day, Minami-chan?"
Minami had long ago learned how not to look at the woman's disgusting teeth, and especially not at the holes where her teeth should be. She repressed a shudder of disgust. "Not the worst day I've had." And it wasn't the worst she'd had, but that wasn't saying much seeing as how most days were horrible and the ones that stood out for being particularly bad were rather traumatic.
By the Will of Fire she hated this place.
Inserting the keys into her family's apartment door, she entered to find, yes, her mother passed out on the futon again.
She sighed, dropping her books and school supplies on the floor, before starting to clean up the mess her mother made. Oh hey, looks like her mother had had a 'friend over', if the moist stains and the abandoned panties by the tatami mats were anything to go by.
"Gross," Minami muttered as she threw them into a corner with the rest of her mother's dirty clothes. She peeled of her mother's socks and added them to the pile, before removing her cheap jewelry and setting that aside as well. Once it looked a little less like the woman had come straight home with a man she'd met at work, gotten drunk at three o'clock in the afternoon, and had sex in the living room while her 3 year old youngest daughter hid in the bedroom, which most definitely was exactly what happened, Minami went to find her sister.
She found Minato on her mat, as calm as ever and reading like she had no worries. "Hey," she greeted without looking up. The book in front of her was almost thicker than her head.
"What are you reading?"
"A book." She replied unhelpfully.
"What it about?"
"History."
"Did you go the library without me?" Minami frowned.
Minato shook her head. "Ka-san's new boyfriend had it."
"Didn't he want it back?"
"He did. But then I asked him why I couldn't borrow his book when he was borrowing Ka-san."
Minami snorted, and gave her sister a considering glance. The younger girl had always been smart, smart enough that Minami half suspected Minato's father was a Nara. She did have black hair, though her's was a messy clump rather than spikey. Or maybe she got her hair from their mother? Minami certainly hadn't gotten her grey shaggy locks from their mother's side.
Even so, and as much as Minami adored her younger sibling, from her constant slightly grumpy expressions to the hilarious ways she messed with the various men who came through their apartment, there was something a little disquieting about her. Sometimes she seemed almost… world weary.
Had Minami failed that badly in her quest? She knew Minato's living conditions weren't the best, sharing a two tatami mat room with her older sister and probably not getting as much food a girl her age needed either. Obviously the girl needed a father figure, but none of the men Oka-san brought home were suitable for that, and Minami honestly despaired of ever meeting anyone who would be. Minato lacked any friends, and Minami was constantly home late because she spent most afternoon's studying or cleaning tables at the bar down the street. Was she lonely most days?
Minami tried, she really did. She wanted to be the best sister in the world for Minato, but apparently it hadn't been enough. Maybe it was because she'd never really had a chance to learn what being a good sister actually meant, or maybe it was because she inherited some kind of bad family gene from her mother?
Please don't let it be that, she thought to herself.
"Something wrong?" Minato asked, looking over the top of her book.
Minami blinked, and tried to swallow her insecurities. The last thing she needed to do was pile her problems on top of Minato's. "No, I'm f-"
The sound of alarms in the distance cut her off and made them both turn their heads. The curtains were drawn, but through the cliff they could both see a faint red glow.
"What's…?" Minami frowned as she leaned forwards and tugged the curtain open. To the West, just between the apartments and up the hill leading to the less run down parts of Konoha, they could see an orange glow.
Thought it was a forest fire at first. I'd never been a firefighter, but I'd seen pictures of what night looked like when the California basin when up. My guess made sense too, coming from the forest and all.
But then forest fires don't roar.
The Kyuubi did though.
I was three years old when the nine tails came to town. My old precinct never needed a lot of riot suppression, but I did have one memorable stint with the riot squad when some union types got laid off. The swarms of people moving through the streets gave me the same impression though. Pressed in from all angles, the smell of sweat in the air and around you a steady stream of incomprehensible screams.
The real difference was in the atmosphere. Where the riot had an air of anger and testosterone about it, this time all I could feel was fear from the people around me.
And of course, the hate. Thick in the air like uptown smog, coiling in your lungs with every breath you take. So thick you can taste it, that same bile ridden tone of a hangover that you know is god's way of saying, 'You might want to quit while you're ahead there, bud.' This is what it felt like to be a black guy walking into a bar with the confederate flag pinned to the wall.
Our mother was dead weight. It was only Minami's persistence that finally woke her up. Slapping the woman awake screaming, "Get up! Get up! You bitch, you're going to kill us!"
It took time. Almost too much time. With me hanging on one hip, and dragging mother along by the hand, we were barely minutes away from our apartment when a great big burning paw of, 'Fuck you and the horse you rode in on,' crushed and incinerated it in one foul swoop.
Mother was still so out of it that she barely noticed the dark look of utter loathing her eldest found time to shoot at her. Jeez, if my daughter ever looked at me like that I'd probably have gotten a deadbolt for my bedroom door.
By the time we made it to the shelters they were already crowded and smelled like some kid crapped his pants in panic. Wasn't me, I'd been out of diapers for months now, thank fuck. It felt like we were in there for days, when really it was only a bit over nine hours. Minami was so busy trying to get the both of us out of there that she didn't have time to get any food or water, meaning that when we finally got let out I had a headache, mother of the year was puking constantly from her hangover, and whining about the sunshine.
I think that day was when Minami really started to hate our mother. At first it wasn't so obvious. With our home destroyed we had to find a new place to live, which wasn't easy with our tiny income. Surprisingly, it was our mother's long time occasional lover that came through for us. Koyomi, a lawyer for the union our mother worked at, seemed to think he was responsible for us, so we ended up moving in with him. Judging by the frequency he and our mother slept together, he seemed to be fine with the arrangement.
At least she was good for something.
Two of us were very rarely in the same room. I spent most of my days browsing Koyomi's small personal library, and doing my best to master this language's various quirks and details, while Minami attended ninja academy, and our mother was either at work, or passed out drunk in Koyomi's bed. Eventually though I caught the two of them together, and Minami seemed like she just wanted to slap her. The looks Minami was shooting off were the kinda looks you only catch from someone that you knew you'd be bringing up on murder charges in a couple of months. It was kinda sad really. You only feel hatred like that for something you used to love. You know, like me and the ex-wife.
It was actually a decent place, and I considered it a step up from our old abode, though I knew it wasn't going to last. Eventually, after a couple of months, Koyomi's parents caught wind of what he was doing and pressured him into kicking us out. At first it seemed like he was gonna fight them, but then our mother did what she does best and ruined everything. It was bad enough that she wasn't being loyal to him, but that she was sleeping with other men in his own home?
Don't really blame him for showing us the curb.
