Hashirama
We lived at the young man's castle for almost a full week even though he claimed the arrangements would be temporary. He never asked us for any kind of compensation except to do chores to help keep the castle clean and not to mess anything up. Other than the girl we saw at the hot spring, there were five other children there, three little boys and two little girls. None of them seemed to be a day over five years old. They all came from destroyed villages like the others we had seen. When we weren't doing chores, we all played regular town-kid games together which were way more fun than any ninja-kid games I'd ever played.
"The kids around here are really care-free." I pointed out. "Despite their situations."
"Yeah, it makes you want to stay here forever." Madara said.
It was subtle but the underlining was there like a blaring sign to the both of us.
What if we just never go back?
The girl that Madara had seen naked became fast friends with us almost immediately. Our first night in the castle, she chose to sleep in the room all the way up at the highest part of the tower with us instead of in the basement where the girls slept. It was clear that she wanted something from us. Her first question, quite plausibly, was how Madara ended up face first in that hot spring if he wasn't spying.
"He tripped and rolled down the hill." I told her as we ascended the stairs to the highest tower. "He's really clumsy."
Madara hung back, saying nothing. She turned around and smiled at him.
"It's okay." She said. "With the way you acted, I kind of felt like it might've been a big misunderstanding. Any normal boy would've tried to pull something with me but you looked like you'd seen a ghost!"
"I am normal." He mumbled, looking at the floor.
"I didn't say you weren't." she replied, then she stuck her hand out. "Anyway, I'm Mito. What's your name?"
He paused, staring at her for a long time and then continued up the stairs, pushing past her.
"None of your business." He muttered.
She stared at his back with a quizzical expression and then looked at me.
"He's Madara." I told her, then I shrugged. "Don't take it personally, he's has this brain disorder that causes him to be an asshole at random times."
"Shut up, Hashi!" he yelled from further up the staircase.
"So, do you live here?" I asked as we continued.
She shook her head.
"I'm like you guys, just sticking around here so that the perverts don't get a hold of me."
"Perverts?" I asked, then I looked over at Madara, who was tugging at one of the mats on the floor.
"The guy said it, didn't he?" Mito asked. "That he found some guy trying to force himself on Madara?"
Madara lifted his head up, glaring at her.
"That's not even what happened!" he exclaimed. "Butt out!"
She shrugged.
"Well, that's the reason why I trusted you. Because I realized, you're just a kid. Just like us."
He frowned.
"I'm not a child..." he muttered almost inaudibly.
"How old are you guys anyway?"
"I'm twelve." I said jabbing my chest with my thumb, then I pointed. "And Mada's eleven."
"Almost twelve!" He interjected.
"I'm almost thirteen." She said, smiling. "I'm more of an adult than you guys."
"Children!" a feminine voice called, traveling up the stairs. "Settle down now."
Mito put her finger to her lips.
"These old guys go to bed so early." She said, rolling her eyes.
"Ugh... How boring." I mumbled.
We pulled our mats near Madara's so that our positions formed a kind of triangle and lay down. Madara turned, facing me, and closed his eyes. I stuck my hand into his dark, thick hair and rubbed his scalp. He opened one of his eyes and flicked my hand.
"Did you guys come from one of the burned down villages?"
I looked over at the candle flickering in the corner of the room casting shadows all over the place. Thunder boomed outside.
Did the storms reach here, too?
"No." I told her. "We're just...traveling."
"Traveling, huh?" she asked. "But...wouldn't that be too dangerous?"
Then she lifted her head and peered at both of us through the dim candle light.
"Unless...you're running from something."
The thunder boomed louder, shaking our quiet hovel. I could hear the rain beginning to pour.
"Stop trying to pretend like you understand us." Madara grumbled.
"Sorry!" she said quickly. "You don't have to be so mad all the time..."
I snickered.
"Well, I'd be a bit angry, too, if some random guy just tried to touch my-"
"SHUT- UP, HASHI!" He shouted, sitting up momentarily.
I raised my hands in surrender.
"Okay! Okay!" I yelled, laughing.
I lay down, taking the spare moment to avoid responding to her accusation by pretending to go to sleep. Madara and I faced each other. For a second, he opened his eyes and put his finger to his lips. I knew he was telling me to keep the secret. Our secret. Our very vital secret about what we really were. I nodded at him curtly.
I'm well aware that no one can know... If they did... How could we face them every day?
The very next morning, we were surprised to discover their simplistic way of life.
"Wake-up!"
I yawned, coming face to face with her again. Mito. That day, she wore her long red hair in two pony tails on either side of her head. It was a mark of how long her hair was that the ponytails still reached past her shoulders.
"We have to line up for food downstairs." She told me.
I sat up and stretched, reaching for my jacket which I'd taken off during sleep. Mito knelt down over Madara and shook his shoulders.
"Get up!"
His eyes fluttered open and he stared at her. Spending so many days with him, I was able to understand his little nuances. We woke up different. Often times, even if I wasn't having a nightmare, I woke up with a start. I also slept wildly, rolling around a lot and usually falling out of my bed. Madara slept still and woke up daintily, like he was some kind of princess. And he usually stared at a blank space for five or six minutes before he actually got himself up.
But he didn't go about his usual way at all that day. He stared at her, but only momentarily, and then he pushed her away, backing out of her grasp.
"You're acting like I have some kind of disease!" She pouted.
"Well, maybe you do." He retorted.
"I'll race you guys downstairs!" I declared.
Hating to miss out on a challenge, Madara jumped to his feet. We rushed down the spiral staircase, with Mito hot on our heels, and spun out into the kitchen. The other kids were there standing against the wall. It wasn't until then that I realized how thin and frail-looking they were. Like they hadn't eaten a good meal a day in their lives.
"Stand against the wall." Said a weary old, dark-skinned woman holding a large bowl.
All three of us got into position next to the other kids and picked up smaller wooden bowls. She walked along the line, taking one scoop of food out of the bowl and slopping it down into our bowls, when she got to me, I had to physically retrain myself from wrinkling my nose.
This stuff smells like throw up...
But the other kids bent down over their bowls and began scooping the thick, gray glop into their mouths immediately without a spare second. Mito stared at the food for a second longer and then, resigning to hunger, complied. Madara and I exchanged glances. I pretended to faint, making him crack a smile, but then we too began to eat. It tasted just the same way it smelled and it took a lot to keep it down but I found that when it was eaten, it filled me.
It's clear that most people in the surrounding areas are malnourished... How is it even possible for them to survive this way?
I didn't ponder that for much longer that day because then we were allowed to go out and play tag. Slowly but surely, over our course of time there, we began to get used to the sloppy meals and the lack of meat. We fell into a kind of rhythm and that question kept becoming more and more apparent to me.
What if we just never go back?
One day, when we were all playing hide and seek, something different happened.
"I know the best hiding spot!" Mito whispered to me as, Kita and Lugen, two twins with large, brown soulful eyes and curly white-blonde hair, began counting to one hundred.
Mada rolled his eyes, often choosing to do the opposite of whatever Mito wanted to do, and ran in the opposite direction. Mito grasped my hand and pulled me all the way around the side of the house. I looked up at the time, realizing for the first time that, the dark, threatening clouds that covered the war areas were moving, overcoming us. I remember wondering when it would begin raining there, too. Mito stopped suddenly and pointed to a bed of roses behind the well all the way at the furthest part of the castle grounds. The well was on a hill overlooking much of the village.
"These pretty flowers match with my hair." She said, lying down face first and pulling her hair out of the pigtails so that it all covered her like a dark red sheet. "See? Now I blend in!"
"Yeah, but how am I going to blend in?"
She gave me an inquiring look.
"Can you get inside the well and hang onto the sides?"
I glanced at it and nodded without a second thought.
"Even though Kita and Lugen are kind of young, they're really fast." I said. "I can hang on for five minutes or whatever until they show up."
I jumped up, standing on the edge of the well but before I was going to get inside, something caught my attention. I turned, grabbing one of the strongholds of the well for support against the wind and looking downhill, at the barren, depressing town.
"Who... Are those people?" I asked.
Mito had been lying face down, when I spoke she brushed her hair out of her face and stood next to me. The thunder clouds increased, blowing over us. Mito began trembling but, somehow, I didn't think it had to do with the breezes.
"It's them." She said, grabbing my pant leg. "They're going to take from us again."
I jumped down from the well and looked at her seriously.
"Who?" I asked.
"The ninja." She replied softly. "Or more specifically... The Hagoromo clan."
My eyes narrowed instinctively.
Right... Those people.
The Hagoromo clan was against the Senju and had been siding with the Uchiha's on many disputes for about a year, but that meant nothing. They often hopped back and forth between the Senju and the Uchihas, pulling strings and stealing confidential information from one clan and selling it to the other just to fuel the hatred and rivalry between them. It suited their needs to make sure we never became allied.
Mito's hand tightened on mine. I watched them moving up the hill and toward the castle with my fist balling involuntarily.
"Tsuyoi-san always tries to keep the best for us, since there are many of us, but they always come and take everything..." Mito went on. "But that's like all ninja... The reason this town is so empty and sorrowful is because they come through all the time and take more than enough."
She looked at me then, eyes pained looking and whispered.
"Did you know that the majority of people in these times aren't dying from war casualties or accidents?" she looked down toward the barren town. "They're dying from starvation..."
I abruptly recalled the food we were served for breakfast and how thin and malnourished all the children we were sharing the castle with looked. Nothing but skin and bones.
Those people... A clan that pretends to be anal about the belief of wellbeing for all but, behind closed doors, they're usually the ones causing all the pain and hardship just for their own sick twisted enjoyment. The tumultuous trifles that cause unnecessary clashes with the Senju and the Uchiha are often a result of their nosiness. They're instigators.
"Come on." I said to Mito. "Let's stop them."
She shook her head so hard, I thought it might snap off.
"There's no way! If we don't obey, they'll take all of us kids and train us in the art of Ninjutsu and probably hurt Tsuyoi-san and his mother!" she exclaimed. "We can't!"
But I kept walking, half ignoring her. She kept up alongside me but strained to pull me back.
"Hashi..." she whispered anxiously.
I heard footsteps on my other side and realized it was Madara.
"Those ones look like..."
I nodded, already reading his mind.
"Mito confirmed it." I told him. "They steal from the people here."
We paused at the side of the house and watched as the four men confronted Tsuyoi with greedy smiles. The children who were playing hide and seek stayed hidden and Kita and Lugen hid behind Tsuyoi-san's legs.
"I have nothing to give you." We heard him declare. "As you can see here, there are already too many to feed.
"Then make room." One of the men said. "We actually have things to do, unlike you people sitting around all day on your asses like cattle!"
"Exactly! Leave the food for the ones fighting, you lazy pricks!"
Tsuyoi-san visibly bristled. I could see almost hear the grinding of his teeth.
"You wouldn't want to do anything stupid, eh?" the third one asked, then he motioned to the two twin boys hugging his knees. "Wouldn't want to die right in front of these kids."
"As if we'd let them kill him." Madara said, crossing his arms.
"Fighting isn't a good idea, Madara." Mito protested. "We have to be safe!"
Madara rolled his eyes.
"Why don't you go hide somewhere and stop speaking in the presence of men." he retorted, then he turned to me. "So what are you thinking?"
"That I'm pissed off." I told him. "But... Mito's right in a way. Acting now would be dangerous."
He raised his eyebrows.
"That's a first. You being cautious..." He replied. "But that's right. Patience is key for all endeavors."
I glanced at Mito to make sure she was sufficiently worried about the scene in front of her so that she wasn't listening.
"The main reason I'm saying this is because we can't afford to blow our cover right now." I whispered to him.
"Exactly." He said, eyes still on the ninja. "But still, if they even so much as lay a finger on anyone here... I'll..."
Tsuyoi-san brushed his hand through his thick, tightly curled black hair and motioned for his mother to come forward. They handed them fabrics of clothing, small bits of jewelry and whatever else they'd gathered as their "taxes" and, when the Hagoromo clansmen got a good laugh out of how poor they were, they decided to leave.
"Sometimes, I despise them." Madara said. "We should do something about this..."
"Like what?" I asked him. "Kill all of the ninja in the world?"
Lightning streaked across the sky and the other kids screamed, rushing inside. Tsuyoi picked Kita and Lugen up into his arms and carried them next to his mother. Everyone's expression was solemn and weakened.
"I was considering it." Madara muttered.
I turned to him, feeling angered by his recklessness.
"At the end of the day, ninja are people, too, Madara! Even if we got rid of every last ninja in existence, people would still fight." I reminded him. "People always fight! If there's anything that I've learned for certain these twelve years I've been alive, it's that."
Madara looked at me with large, hopeless eyes. The way he looked kind of reminded me of someone innocent and babyish...like Itama.
"And here I thought you were the optimist." He said solemnly.
We're standing idly by watching people like us torture the innocent. What's there to be optimistic about that?
So, we were adults again in that aspect. Secretly going back and forth on ways to "save" the ninja world at night.
But during the day, we were free. And we enjoyed the lavishness of childhood by having trifling disagreements like who stepped outside of the "safe zone" during tag, and who was taller than who, and whose turn it was to wash the dishes.
For example, strangely, even though Mito recognized Madara as the boy who had seen her completely naked, she didn't hold it against him. And even stranger, he seemed to have something against her instead.
"Hey, Mito, I want to show you something!" I had said one random afternoon, calling her.
She stood up from the weeds she was helping Tsuyoi-san's mother pick and ran over to me but on her way past, Madara casually turned around from pulling the clothes off of the line and stuck his foot out. She tripped hard, plowing face first into the dirt. She lifted her head and frowned at him sourly.
"Mada, quit it!" she yelled.
He held his hands up in surrender as Hikari-san, Tsuyoi-san's mother, raised her eyebrows at him sternly.
"It wasn't me." he lied, even though I saw him do it.
My budding relationship with Mito was much more positive. Her personality was very unique, unlike that of any girl I'd ever met before. Most girls in the Senju clan were either loud and abrasive or blank-slated into being the "perfect wife" with no personality whatsoever. Mito was an absolute angel in every sense of the word. Her cheeriness went on for days. She was never angry or upset unless Madara picked on her and even then, she bounced back into her happy-go lucky mood within the next minute. She was gentle with the younger children, often letting piggy back on her and very helpful and generous with chores, always doing more than she needed to. If there was a name for perfect, it would be hers and as I watched her it became more and more apparent that, at the ripe age of twelve, I could've been in love with her. And not just because she was the first girl I'd ever seen outside of my clan, but her personality...it lit up my world.
I often just wanted her to be satisfied with me. I went out of my way to make her laugh or do things for her...
One day, using Ninjutsu, I manipulated the flower garden in front of the castle so that the bright yellow dandelions spelled out her name.
"What's the big surprise?"
"Just keep walking forward." I told her, keeping my hands clamped down on her eyes.
She giggled, raising her hands to cover mine.
"Okay, I trust you."
I walked her all the way up to it positioned her perfectly in front of it, then removed my hands. She looked down, dark eyes widening.
"Wow..." she said, smile breaking out.
I positioned my hands behind my head laxly and grinned.
"Do you like it?" I asked.
"Of course!" she exclaimed. "It's amazing! But...how did you do it?"
I have a very, very unique kekkei genkai that allows me to manipulate all Earthly things.
"With a lot of prayer." I joked.
She gave me a 'yeah, right' look but didn't pursue it. I knelt down next to some of the white flowers and picked a handful of them. She gave me a surprised look as I slid the flowers into her hair.
"Now you look like a real angel." I said.
She blushed, face matching the color of her hair momentarily.
"You're such a sweetheart, Hashirama." She said, blessing me with a kiss on the cheek.
Near the time we would leave the castle, we had a very unforgettable conversation with her after dinner. Madara and I were walking to our regular living quarters in the highest tower when Mito caught up with us, asking if she could stay in our room like our first night.
"No." Madara said immediately.
"Sure, you can." I said at the same time.
We looked at each other and then Mito poked Madara in the back.
"You're the same guy that accidently caught me naked. Can't I have one little favor?"
He turned his head, trying to hide his quickly flushing cheeks.
"What do you want anyway?" he asked as we entered our tower room.
"Did you know this castle has an observation area on top of this roof?"
I turned, ears perking.
"Really?" I asked.
She ran over to a door in the corner of the room that I'd always thought was a store room or closet and opened it revealing it to hold a staircase.
"It leads up to the tower but Tsuyoi-san told us not to go up there."
I began making my way up the staircase immediately.
All the reason to go!
"If they told us not to go, why are we-"
"Just come on!" Mito said, grabbing Madara's hand and tugging him along.
We came upon a spacious area that was tall enough to see over most of the surrounding land. It was too dark to make anything out but I still peered over the edge of the roof squinting through the darkness.
"You can't even see anything." Madara pointed out. "Let's go back."
She tugged on his hand again.
"Hey... You're both looking the wrong way."
We both turned to her with the same confounded expressions on her face. Her arm rose and she slowly pointed upwards.
"It's an observation tower... To observe the stars."
The night was moonless but the stars went on for infinity.
"Living around so many trees, I just realized I've never seen so many stars." I said, awestruck.
Madara was silent but his eyes were wider than mine, taking in as much as he could.
We all lay down, Mito lying between the both of us, and kept watching. It was something that never got old, something that never got to be boring.
"For some reason, doing this always makes me feel better in a way." She said.
We both turned to her.
"Like, compared to everything else we're so tiny. All the war and fighting... It really means nothing from this perspective."
"As long as people are dying pointless deaths and children are homeless and parentless, it definitely means something." Madara spoke up. "You're just trying to escape reality."
"Isn't that what you're also trying to do?" she asked. "Is it wrong that I'm more open about it?"
His brow furrowed and he said nothing.
"It's alright if we're all scared." she asked, then she looked at me. "Isn't it?"
"Not so scared to the point that you can't make a change." I told her.
Change is what we need... Not escaping... Not hiding... We need...
"What kind of a change can stop war?" she asked.
I'd already been thinking of an idea for a while so I opened my mouth but Madara beat me to it.
"Humans are inherently paranoid people." He said. "We're competitive and aggressive and so war can only be prevented if someone stronger than everyone else rises up and forces everyone into order. That person, or country, or power can police the entire world and keep everyone in check. If they're righteous and fair, everyone will be."
"But that's very risky if we're all depending on that one source." Mito protested.
"Hashi, gets it." He said, nodding at me. "Right?"
I looked down at the space between my knees. A cool breeze came through.
The first time you told me about that, I understood... But now, something else is coming to mind...
"What if instead of having a world where one entity keeps all others under its thumb, we keep all entities equal?" I asked them. "That way no clan can fight each other because they won't be sure if they'll win or not. There will be a balance of power."
A visible question mark could've popped over Madara's head.
"That's not what we said before." He reminded me.
"I've been thinking of it recently." I explained. "You're right. People are paranoid. So they won't want to engage in a fight that they won't be certain that they can win."
"You're wrong." Madara said. "The Senju and Uchiha clans are said to be almost identical in strength but they war constantly."
Mito nodded along with him.
"That's right, their power is almost evenly balanced." She said. "And what's even worse is that in war, causalities aren't what matter, the outcome is. Relying on two evenly matched oppositions is a very serious gamble to take..."
Right... I should know more than anyone that causalities don't stop anything. All anyone cares about is who wins.
My arms suddenly felt heavy, the same way they did after I'd carried Itama.
But, still. I'm willing to take the gamble... We have to believe in the people, don't we?
"Anyway, what's your plan then, if you're so clever?" Madara asked her.
"Power." Mito said. "Devastating power."
We both raised our eyebrows to her.
"My mother told me of an old fable about nine demonic tailed beasts that roam the world tearing apart any human they can find." She explained. "Well, at least everyone thinks it's an old fable. There are a lot of rumors that these beasts are real and they truly exist."
"So what?" Madara asked.
"So, what if the beasts were used to keep the ninja world in check?" she asked.
Suddenly, I snapped my fingers. Catching her drift.
"If there are nine tailed beasts, each of the strongest clans could get one and we could use their fear of annihilation to stop everyone from warring!" I exclaimed. "If all the leaders are rational, and all the clans have tailed beasts, there's no way they'd fight each other with the threat of everyone being killed!"
Mito smiled at me, nodding.
"It helps your balance of power theory hold more weight, Hashi." She explained.
"Yeah, but that's relying on the assumption that people, and clans, are sane decision makers." Madara interjected. "Are you forgetting that war itself is the most insane decision imaginable? How do we know that all these leaders wouldn't be so egotistical that they would overlook the rule?"
True... To be discouraged from war out of fear, one has to be sane enough to realize that they might lose.
"Madara's right, irrational people or clans will be excluded from that rule." She went on. "It's still a gamble."
"Perhaps if one clan is given all the tailed beasts, it could be more collateral for my idea." Madara went on. "That clan could reign supreme."
"But you're forgetting that there's also the issue of human rights, Mada." I said. "If one entity is more powerful than all, there won't be anyone to check them."
"That's why we were going to do it, remember?" he said. "We were going to be the most powerful because there isn't anyone more trust worthy than ourselves!"
"But what about the future generations?" Mito added. "Your children or grandchildren may not be as sensible... They could destroy the world."
We were all silent after that comment. Owls howled in the distance. Our debate had tired us all. We were all lying flat on our backs, watching the stars with half closed eyelids.
"But we won't give up looking for the right answer, will we?" I asked.
"No." Mito and Madara both replied in unison.
But somehow, even as I asked that question and got the reassurance, under the weight of the immense space before us, I couldn't help but ponder the possibility of finding the right answer. It was like all the stars in the sky were the trillions of answers to the question of how to end war and only one of those stars was the correct answer.
I slowly closed my eyes allowing the final thing in my line of sight to be the blue-black night sky with the whitish crystals twinkling among it.
Could our answer really be so far out there?
The next morning, we were woken up by Tsuyoi-san's ancient mother, Hikari-san, who scolded us for breaking rules.
"It was all Hashirama's fault for following that girl."
I bowed my head.
"It was all my fault." I told Hikari-san. "Go ahead and punish me. I deserve it."
Madara stared at me, sitting there sulking and then sighed.
"Okay, it was my fault too..." he said.
"It was my fault specifically." Mito told her.
"No, Madara's right. Punish me." I insisted.
Hikari-san shook her head and pointed down the stairs.
"Never you mind. Just come down for your morning meal."
When she continued down to the kitchen, leaving us in the room, I fist pumped silently and grinned, Mito high fived me and Madara allowed himself a small smile.
"Now I see how well that whole depressed thing works out for you." Madara muttered.
"Heck yeah!" I cheered.
Mito jumped behind me, throwing her arms over my shoulders.
"But you know, she could've just taken you out back and whipped you like the younger kids." She reminded me.
I snickered.
"She'd have to catch me first."
"Well, after all, it was your idea. I would've just told her that so you would've gotten spanked." Madara said.
She turned around and leaned close to his face.
"Somehow, I feel like that's just because you want to see me get spanked." she smirked, eyes discerning.
He pushed past her and said nothing.
Breakfast was fast. We were given less food than everyone else, proof that we still got some kind of punishment. But half of me believed that it was also because of the very noticeable shortage in gray slop since the Hagoromo clansmen took a good amount of Hikari-san's ingredients. We probably wouldn't have been getting punished in terms of lesser food if she had more food to give us. As we handed our bowls to the woman to wash, I noticed Tsuyoi-san. He stood on the other side of the room, sharpening a large spear and then left through the back door.
Compelled by curiosity, I followed him out of the back door. He paused, picking up another weapon and then began walking toward the mountains. I ran up, falling into step next to him.
"Where are you going?" I questioned.
He glanced down.
"Hunting." He told me in his deep, restful voice. "It's been such a long time since we've had meat. I've been looking every day with no luck."
Madara ran up on my side and Mito came up to him on his other side.
"Maybe we can be your good luck charms." Mito said.
I ran up in front of them all and turned around.
"Yeah, check out these muscles!" I said, rolling up my sleeve and flexing for them. "I can help you out better than anyone!"
Mito laughed.
"You're so silly, Hashi!"
"I guess you three can come." He mused. "It'll be helpful for learning how to fend for yourselves later, you know..."
Suddenly, Mito cried out.
"Ow!" she exclaimed.
I looked around Tsuyoi to see Mito massaging one of her ponytails.
"Stop pulling my hair, Madara."
"I didn't even do anything!" he quickly protested.
"Madara, quit messing with her." Tsuyoi-san said, half heartedly.
"It's not my fault she's imagining things." He muttered.
I raised my eyebrows at Madara who quickly looked away from me. Strangely, a memory of one of the previous nights resurfaced to me.
"What do you think of Mito?" I had asked him.
We had been lying down on mats tossing a piece of a shirt that had been rolled up into a ball back and forth to each other.
"Nothing." He said.
"What do you mean?"
"She's a girl. What am I supposed to think of her?" he asked.
I caught the ball and held onto it.
"I don't know..." I mumbled, rolling it around in my fingers. "Maybe that she's pretty?"
"You think she's pretty?" he asked.
"Of course." I said, rolling off my back to face him. "Don't tell her but... I think she's amazing. She's like...perfect. I really, really like her. Maybe even more than just like."
"I won't tell her." he said, then he tugged on his ears. "But no one's perfect. Especially not her. She's the furthest thing from it!"
He frowned animatedly as he turned to me.
"Always talking and pestering..."
"I'm convinced now." I said, smile spreading.
He raised his eyebrows at me.
"You really don't like girls!"
He lunged for me, almost catching my jacket but I rolled away in time, giggling.
"Admit it, Madara!" I shouted, sitting up. "You like guys, don't you?!"
"SHUT-UP!" he yelled, looking horrified.
"Maybe that's why you froze up when that weird guy tried to kidnap you!" I joked.
It was a split second and the next thing I knew, my back was slammed against the stone floor of the castle tower and he sat on me with his fist two inches from my face.
"You better shut up, Hashirama." He threatened, pinning me to the ground using his right arm. "Or else I'll tell her that you were watching her bathe!"
That was the quickest I'd ever shut up in my life.
"Hey..." I said quietly. "You're just kidding, right?"
He rolled his eyes and got up off me.
"Unlike some idiots, I don't joke around."
He walked back over to the ball and picked it up, then sat down with his back facing me.
"Wait... Seriously?" I asked
A couple of deeply silent moments passed. He lay on his back, staring up at the ceiling, throwing the ball from his right hand to his left without speaking.
He suddenly threw the ball at my face. It bounced off of my forehead and rolled to the floor in front of me.
"Of course I'm not gonna tell." He said, sighing. "You're my best friend, even though I hate you..."
Why am I thinking about that now?
I glanced back at Madara and Mito who were walking side by side behind us. Mito tugged on his sleeve and pointed something out to him and he smirked and made some snide remark that made her frown.
Is it perhaps because I'm thinking that maybe... Madara does like Mito?
We had entered the large canyon with tall, rocky mountains rising up over us on either side. He began walking carefully and slowly and without even registering it, Madara and I matched his stealthy pose and the light weightiness of his footsteps.
"Have you guys ever killed before?" he asked.
My heart panged. I knew he meant kill as in hunt but strangely, I couldn't get over the thoughts of real humans I did kill.
I wonder what he'd think if he knew what I truly was.
"No." Madara responded.
"Then get behind me." he said. "There are a lot of coyotes and foxes lurking around here. I wouldn't want you to be hurt. So, stay together. I'll whistle for you later."
Tsuyoi-san inched away from us, rounding the corner and making his way up the rocky hill.
Mito held her hands out to me and Madara. I took her hand but he, as prideful as he is, ignored her.
"I've seen dead people often." Mito said, leaning against the mountain side. "But I've never seen a dead animal before... I wonder if it's similar..."
She sounded melancholy so I decided to lighten her mood.
"I just hope animals aren't filled with that gray mushy stuff we had for breakfast."
She turned, red hair swishing, smiling at me.
"I thought I was gonna collapse from disgust and they were going to have to cook me for dinner!"
She began giggling.
Hey, I'm on a roll...
I pressed both of my hands to my chest.
"But if they did cook me, I'd let you have my heart." I told her.
She grinned.
"Awww!"
"And I'd let Madara have my brain. He needs more of that!" I joked.
But he wasn't listening, instead, he was looking forward intensely. I stopped joking. There was a strange sound, one that sounded like a low whistle.
That's the signal.
Madara hopped up, quickly scaling the mountain side and then, far above us, he seemed to scout the area for Tsuyoi.
Looking down at me, he pointed north. Mito and I ran around the corner and up the rocky crest keeping our eyes out for him. Finally, we came upon him, standing purposefully in a wide part of the valley with a bow and arrow out. His arrow was pointed directly at a large mountain wolf that glared at him, edging forward.
Mito and I neared him from the side.
"Want us to hold him down?" Madara asked from above us on the crest.
Tsuyoi shook his head.
"Hunting isn't a forceful thing, kids... It takes a lot of patience and understanding."
The wolf edged forward and he didn't move, he didn't even seem to breathe. They stared each other down, one begging the other to move but neither submitting until finally, the wolf took a step back.
"Gotcha." Tsuyoi whispered and he released the arrow which pierced straight through the wolf's eye.
He collapsed onto the ground, instantly dead. Tsuyoi got to his feet and motioned to us. We all crowded in, staring down at the motionless beast. He removed the arrow, allowing blood to flow from it onto the ground.
Something about killing this animal doesn't feel right to me. It's so sudden. So abrupt. One minute it's there and the next... Gone. Gone forever.
Tsuyoi, noticing our solemn expressions, decided to speak.
"Life is complicated." He told us. "It seems cruel, the way we must kill to eat, destroy so as not to suffer and suffocate as though not to be suffocated."
He lifted the limp animal, tucking it under his arm.
"It might seem scary or daunting but it is the way it must be." He said.
He sighed as we walked along.
"And more importantly, I believe that when you take a life directly for your own need, it's different than taking a life out of anger or hatred or fear. Because when you take a life for the direct benefit of your own, you cherish that soul, soak in its blood, feel its pain. Killing without feeling...that is the true sin."
My hand was still inserted into Mito's and I squeezed hers momentarily. The heavy, cloudy sky above us parted for a second, allowing a quick stream of sunlight to reign down on her smile.
Madara
My eyes stayed on the dead wolf tucked under Tsuyoi's arm. Drops of blood dripped in a straight line after it. I adjusted my stride to step over them. On the other side of Mito, Hashirama skipped with a bit of a bounce in his step, most likely to try to make me look at him and cheer me up. Very abruptly, Mito grasped my hand.
"What Tsuyoi-san said is making me think..." she said.
"Think about what?" Hashirama asked.
"Well, it's just that... The world is a really painful place..." then she rose her eyes to the impending bursts of orange and lavender. Sunset.
"But it's also very pretty."
Hashirama and I both followed her gaze, taking in the scenic view before us. We all paused at the edge of the cliff side as Subaru-san walked, looking on. The cliff was one of the tallest ones around. From there, we could even see the beginnings of the sand desert again.
"I believe that if we concentrate more on the prettier things in life, maybe one day we can make life completely pretty!"
A couple birds swooped over us and down into the canyon below. Startled, she rose her eyes to the sky, reflecting the various colors before us and I found I couldn't take my eyes off of her. Her vibrant red hair, which she had at some point taken out of the pigtails, blew around her like a cloak.
You're right. This world can be very...beautiful.
"Why are you watching me?" she said suddenly, turning and smiling at me.
I tore my eyes away from her and scowled.
"I was looking past you." I muttered, pulling my hand away from hers roughly.
She gave me a look. One that unsettled me. Her eyes were open very wide and her bottom lip stuck out slightly in a kind of pout. My heart began beating quickly as I glanced down, noticing the shinning piece of metal on her finger.
A memory of a couple days before that intruded my thoughts. Hashirama was sick. Hikari-san assumed it was probably because of a lack of food since the shortage and tried to give him more gray slop which he promptly refused to eat.
"I think it's all this sloppy stuff that's finally getting to me." he mumbled before quickly running to throw up.
So for that entire day, I was alone because Hikari-san was keeping Hashirama quarantined so that he didn't infect anyone else.
"Why don't you go play sock ball with the others?"
Sock ball was some stupid peasant game where one kid hides a sock somewhere in the garden and everyone else has to look for it. Incredibly boring for someone with Ninjutsu that could find it in less than five minutes. It would be even more boring if I had the Sharingan to be able to find it in less than five seconds.
I ended up sitting on a bench staring at a garden which, peculiarly, had flowers positioned in such a way that they spelled out Mito's name. I stared at it, not completely sure why, and listened to the rumbling sky overhead.
Why does it feel like this storm is following us everywhere we go?
"Hi."
I turned to see Mito squatting next to the garden. She reached out and picked two flowers.
"Feeling lonely?" she asked.
I scoffed and leaned back on the bench with my arms crossed.
"If it rains, you should come in or you might get sick too." She said. "It seems like you two aren't very used to getting exposed to the elements."
"Of course, we're used to that. We're-" I quickly stopped myself, thinking fast.
She raised her eyebrows.
"We're travelers." I improvised.
She sat down on the bench next to me.
"But why do you travel so much?" she asked. "Wouldn't your mother or father be upset?"
I huffed.
"Maybe."
She smiled.
"So, you do have parents." she clarified, seeming relieved.
"Of course, I do." I said, glancing at her. "Who doesn't have parents?"
I kicked at the dirt.
"Annoying old people who always try to tell you what you can and can't do... Like my stupid mother... Without ever listening to what I have to say." I muttered, kicking again.
She was silent for a while and then she laughed.
"Well, I guess if I was a mother, you'd be a bit of a handful." She said, smiling.
Feeling offended, I frowned at her. She shrugged sheepishly.
"It's just that...you're always so defensive, you know?" she said. "It's like you already have an answer before someone even thinks of the question."
My father's words came back to me.
"You have to know how to treat a woman..."
I looked down, kicking my feet back and forth. Because of our height, our feet didn't touch the ground.
"But you should be grateful for your parents anyway." She said, getting to her feet. "You never know when something could happen..."
She picked her two flowers up off of the bench.
Those are most likely for Hashirama. Though, I doubt any dumb flowers would make him feel better faster...
She turned, sticking her hand out toward me. My eyebrows rose.
"Here." She said simply.
I slowly took the single flower she was offering me with a questioning look.
"Come inside before the rain, okay?" she said, before turning and trotting up the path with the other flower.
And then, for the first time, I doubted my own logic against someone else's.
Perhaps... I do assume things too quickly.
I looked down at her name written out in the flowers and made my way back to the castle. Everyone was inside by that time, making a loud ruckus, but strangely, Hikari-san wasn't yelling at anyone to quiet down. On my way to the staircase that led to the highest tower, I noticed Hikari and Mito sewing pants together with their backs to me. I would've continued walking if I hadn't heard the next sentence...
"I've noticed you've been very attached to the two new boys lately." She said. "What's going on?"
Mito scratched her head bashfully.
"Is it that noticeable?"
"Even going to the extent to sleep with them on certain occasions." She said, giving her a knowing look. "I pay attention."
Mito played with her fingers.
"I suppose you could say we're just friends..." she said. "Well, I guess that's how they both probably feel about me but..."
"But?" Hikari persisted.
It's Hashirama. She likes him.
She looked down.
"Hashirama's such a sweetheart. He's the funniest, kindest guy I've ever met in my life. He's playful but he's also really, really smart. And he's so cute."
I knew it.
Hikari smiled at her through the bags of weariness on her face. She was such a poorly old woman, very brittle looking, but Mito's youth seemed to be giving her life.
"And the other boy, Madara I recall, is just a friend?"
Of course I am...
She clutched her knees, hands balling into fists.
"Hikari-san...can I ask you a question?"
"Sure, darling, anything."
"Am I a bad person if...I like two boys at the same time?"
I could feel my heart beat rising, hairs standing up on my arms. I fervently looked around making sure no one was watching me eavesdrop.
The smile stretched further upon Hikari-san's lips.
"You like Madara also?"
"Yeah..." she said, keeping her head lowered. "He might seem crude and callous and uncaring but... I know he has a heart. And for some reason, I want to be the one to find it. I...want to make him happy."
She laughed.
"Oh, darling..."
Mito looked up.
"Can I ask you... are you still grieving heavily over the loss of your mother and father?"
My heart hiccupped.
Her parents are dead?
My mind flashed back to us sitting on the bench and me complaining about my parents.
No wonder she seemed so relieved that I had parents... But then... Why didn't she get angry at me for being insensitive?
She shook her head.
"Well, I do miss the ring that Mamma left me with. But overall, not so much."
Ring?
By reflex, I touched my pocket. It was still sitting there... Waiting... But for what? Why was I still keeping it? And even as I slowly realized I'd have to give it back to her, I began to clutch it tighter. It had always felt like some kind of very sentimental heirloom. Something precious. Was I keeping it because, in a way, I wanted to pretend that something so loved really belonged to me?
"Still lost it?" Hikari asked her.
Mito nodded.
"But I'm not too worried. I've often lost that ring and found it the most peculiar ways. Even now, though I don't have it, I feel like it's somewhere close by just waiting for me to pick it up."
My hands began to feel sweaty.
I need to leave it somewhere. In the cupboard... On her sleeping mat... But in some kind of way that she won't suspect that someone had it all along.
"I'd say those boys are doing a heck of a lot more good than we are at making you happy." She said, patting her head kindly. "Everything is fleeting, honey. Enjoy their company as long as you can."
Mito finished sewing three pairs of matching pants for Kita, Lugen and another one of the younger boys and stood up, nodding.
"Thank you, Hikari-san"
"And also, I don't think you have to worry much about those two boys not returning your likeness."
Mito raised her eyebrows.
"The little brown haired one is always desperately trying to get your attention. He's seems to be a little more than infatuated with you."
Mito giggled.
"And as for the other one, he's rather typical. Always picking on you? Calling you names? Making fun of you, right?"
Mito nodded.
"He probably likes you more than the other one!" she exclaimed.
But I wasn't listening to the end of the conversation. I was slowly backing away, trying to discreetly get out of the door. I successfully got all the way back to the garden where Mito's name was still spelled out. I got on my hands and knees trying to decide whether I should place the ring among the flowers or under the bench.
"What are you doing?"
I jumped almost a full feet in the air and spun around to see Tsuyoi leaning over my shoulder. I quickly slipped the ring back into the pocket that wasn't torn.
"Nothing." I said, standing and messing up the flowers for extra emphasis.
He sighed, looking at the disturbed flowers that no longer spelled her name.
"You know, if you like Mito, you should just go talk to her."
I kept my eyes facing downward.
"...I never said I-"
"It's a normal thing people go through." He said, fixing up his bow and arrow shooter as he spoke. "Nothing to be ashamed of."
"But I'm not-"
"It's just a little obvious." He said, pointing at the flowers I messed up. "What with the way you pick on her."
I sighed, opting to say nothing. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Mito and Hikari coming out to hang clothes on the line.
"I was actually a lot like that with Kita and Lugen's mother." He said.
I raised my eyebrows.
"You're married?" I asked.
He grinned, stretching in the skin tight dark-green mesh shirt he wore.
"Don't look it, do I?" he asked. "Well, I guess you could say I was married."
"Didn't work out?" I asked.
Of course it didn't... Whoever decided women and men had to be together for life to persist was insane...
"I guess it didn't, or more like it couldn't..." he said, kneeling down next to me to fix the tweed on his bow. "My wife, Kya, really loved me and the boys, you know? So much that, she was ready to do anything for us."
I turned to him, called by the graveness of his tone.
"We lived in the Land of the Lightning before. Not sure if you heard of it, but over there, we were so blind to war. Most of us had never even buried a person, let alone seen a person die right in front of us. We were pretty isolated. Completely oblivious to the hell going on in these parts." He told me. "Sooner or later, the ninja native to this land moved over there and started causing trouble. Our ninja clans squared up, tried to fight, but most of them lost miserably."
That's insane... To think there was an entire land devoid of war before. It sounds like some kind of fable now.
"One night, when the boys were just born, a couple warring clans passed through our village. In their attempt to destroy each other, they almost set the entire village ablaze." He told me. "I'd gotten into a hunting accident the day before and couldn't walk. Kya...all alone, grabbed Kita and Lugen and got them out of the house, and on when she came back to get me, the house fell apart, burning wood fell on her."
As he spoke there were no tears. I didn't expect there to be. Men didn't cry.
"When I crawled across the scorching hot floor, reaching to try to pull her out, she stopped me. She said that, with the way the house was and the way I was injured, we would both be killed before I could save her." He said, then he shrugged. "I knew it was true. But...that doesn't stop a man from trying does it?"
I shook my head. Strangely, he broke into a smile.
"It wasn't until I heard the twins' cries from outside that I stopped. Kya looked at me and I looked at her and we knew what was most important at that point. More than all the years we shared together, more than all the love and laughter... It was those babies out there. That future." He said. "And so... I crawled out..."
He stood up and began rummaging through his pockets.
"The house collapsed immediately after that... But the twins were safe." He told me.
He pulled a small, four inch long object from his pocket along with a match. He swiftly swiped the match across the thigh of his pants, immediately blazing it, and met it to the tip of the object. Noticing my curiosity, he smiled.
"It's a cigarette." He informed me, then he handed me one. "The newest thing from the Land of the Stone. Ninja probably made it, you know? It helps calm nerves. I imagine something like this would mean life or death for them."
I lifted the cigarette to him which he promptly lit and observed it.
Life or death is right... Ninja with calm nerves could throw shuriken straighter, dodge weapons with more ease... Amazing that those distant ninja could've already created something this useful. That makes them...a threat to us.
"Anyways, I took 'em and went for my mother, who was in a more distant part of the land, and we've been roaming ever since. Looking for a place that's innocent and ignorant like the Land of the Lightning used to be. Only...we don't think such a place exists anymore. So we crashed in this abandoned castle in this crusty old town."
I pushed the cigarette through my lips and sucked it in like I watched Tsuyoi do. I felt a slight burn in my throat and began coughing uncontrollably.
"Not too harsh, kid. Take it easy." He taught me, patting me on the back firmly.
"I'm fine." I muttered.
I breathed out, waited a moment and tried again. That time it went down easier. And the next one after that wasn't even noticeable. We were silent for a while, watching the smoke float up around us. I looked over at the man standing before me with new eyes.
All this time, I'd seen these non-ninja as victims, helpless people who spend their entire day struggling just to catch one meal, when in fact most of them are heroes in every sense of the word. Maybe Hashirama was wrong... Maybe the world can be fixed if ninja are eliminated once and for all.
He turned, seeing me staring at him and his dark brown eyes crinkled kindly.
"Sorry about telling you my whole life story." He said, dropping his finished cigarette into the grass and stomping it out. "The point is that men can't be complete without women. It's the story of life. So either you toughen up and be a man or you stay a child forever."
"I am a man." I said.
"Alright, then just tell her how you feel. If you're lucky, she'll return the favor, but if not, no big deal." He said, aiming his arrow into the sky. "Because nine times out of ten, there'll be another catch waiting right around the corner."
He let his arrow go, coming into direct contact with a sparrow that swooped a bit too low. Both the bird and arrow fell heavily at his feet.
"So...Kya wasn't your first love?" I asked.
He picked the dead bird up, smiling.
"Hell no!" he exclaimed. "Just like you, I was an idiot. And it was a long time before I found someone who would put up with my dumbass."
I couldn't help but grin. He stuck his fist out and I pounded my own fist against it.
"Good luck." He said, saluting me as he turned toward the castle.
I looked over at the clothes line. Hikari headed inside and after a while, Tsuyoi headed in with her but Mito stayed outside, fixing the things on the line. The threatening storm clouds from before continued to pass over.
I'm not a child... I'm a man.
I walked up the path, making a beeline for her.
I'm the head of my own squad. I'm a man.
I walked up behind her.
I'm an Uchiha. I'm a man!
Mito turned around and smiled at me.
"Hi, Madara."
And that smile was enough to make me turn right back around, forget everything Tsuyoi-san had told me, and go back to finding a spot to hide the stupid ring once and for all...but I bore through it.
"Hi..."
She raised her eyebrows.
"Is something wrong?"
"No, it's just..." I began, then I rolled my eyes. "You were the same one telling me earlier to stay inside because of the storm but here you are outside. You're brainless."
"I had to get everyone's clothes inside before the storm." She said. "They'll get wet."
"You could stop caring about everyone so much." I pointed out.
She cocked her head.
"I like helping people."
"Of course, because you're Ms. Perfect." I remarked snidely.
A look of hurt washed over her face, one I'd never seen on her before and she curtly turned back to the clothes line.
"I never said I was perfect..." she whispered.
I paused, fingering the ring in my pocket.
"Damn it, I know you're not perfect... Only someone stupid like Hashirama would actually think..."
She gave me a confused look.
This isn't going the right way at all...
I finally just pulled it out of my pocket and held it out to her, right in the palm of my hand.
"Just... Take this."
She looked at it, eyes widening and then, very carefully, picked it up with her forefinger and thumb.
"My ring..." she said, seemingly breathless. "You..."
I opted for just telling the truth.
"I found it on the rock when you ran away at the spring that time." I said. "I just never got around to giving it back..."
But I couldn't even finish my sentence before she threw her arms around me and hugged me.
"Thank you so much, Madara! You don't know how much this means to me!"
As she looked up at me, I was shocked to see the tears budding in her eyes.
You little liar... You said before that it didn't hurt you that you'd lost it but it's obvious that it terrified you... Now I see. Your imperfection is trying to be perfect. You strive so much to be happy all the time and fix everyone's problems and be of help most likely because you're afraid of being a burden... But why?
I thought of all that as I held her to my chest but all the thoughts dispersed when she looked up at me, face inches from mine. I could feel a tingling sensation budding at parts of my body that I didn't even know I had. She leaned toward me and, compelled by my awakening urges, I bent into her also but then...
"Don't tell her but... I think she's amazing. She's...perfect. I really, really like her. Maybe even more than just like."
Hashirama...
I ducked away from her, making her bump into me awkwardly. She looked startled, then slightly embarrassed. I mirrored her embarrassment.
"Sorry, I...have to go..." I said, turning around and quickly going back into the castle.
"Thanks again for the ring!" she called after me.
And ever since then, I had been in a constant battle over whether to stay loyal to my friend or stay loyal to myself... But Hashirama was like a brother to me. I'd never betray him. Still... Sometimes, I seriously contemplated it...
Mito's eyes gave me the same painful look they had when I had told her she was perfect. I looked down at the ring shimmering on her finger and then forced myself to look away.
She's...better off with him anyway... Their personalities match each other better...
"At least what Tsuyoi said kind of made me feel like this word is less cruel than I imagined." Hashirama spoke up as we all walked after Tsuyoi and his kill.
Everything that Tsuyoi had said were things I'd already thought of myself. But I'd always looked at the entire world from a completely wicked and cruel perspective.
We kill and kill and kill... Each other, lesser beings, animals, whatever... We kill... And we're all evil for it.
But when he drew the distinction between sympathy for the dead versus apathy for them, it all made a bit more sense. Maybe that kind of way of thinking was why his land stayed pure for so long.
After dinner, which was way better than breakfast because of the meat we caught, we sat in the highest tower of the castle where we had slept the previous night. Hashirama was sitting on the window sill gazing at the stars. I lay down on my mat, staring up at the ceiling.
"Let's give them the money." Hashirama said.
I knew what he was talking about and I was thinking of it, too. As ninja, we don't need to hunt or fish or struggle. We hire neighboring neutral towns, like the one Tsuyoi-san and his mother lived in, to do all that work for us and send us their food for a promise that we won't destroy their town in the process of our squabbles. We rarely kept the promise, but because of fear of being killed faster, they obliged.
"I hate what we're doing to these poor lands." I spoke up. "It's the least we can do to give at least these people some compensation."
"Yeah and when we make our own village, let's make it so that instead of siphoning of the neighboring lands, ninja assist them... Like volunteers."
For once, I didn't disagree with them.
Instead of just being a threateningly powerful military force, we can be friendly to the neighboring towns and do good deeds for them. That's a perfect idea...
Hashirama picked up the bag of money and we made our way down the spiraling staircase.
"They'll want to know where we got this from." I said. "They're honest people. They most likely won't take it if we tell them the truth."
"We won't tell them." Hashirama proposed. "Let's just leave it in the cupboard where the lady keeps the bowls."
I paused on the staircase. He glanced up at me.
"What?"
"The Hagoromo clan..." I reminded him. "They'll just come back and take it all."
His expression turned pensive. We stared at each other, more so looking past each other into our own thoughts.
"Maybe we can leave a note telling them to leave." I said. "We'll tell them to take the money and all the younger ones and look for a place outside of the warring zones."
Where there's still innocence and ignorance...
He looked down at the money we had.
"Do you think they'll listen?" he asked.
"Of course." I said, walking past him on the steps. "It's free money and it's not like they don't need it."
I picked up one of the sewing needles and began stabbing into the cabinet wood to make the note.
"Yeah, you're right. At the very least, this is the best we can do." He said as he slid the bag in place inside the cabinet.
After that, we left, taking none of the money with us.
"I feel weird about not telling Mito we're leaving." Hashirama said as we came upon the outskirts of the barren town.
Hmm... We should probably follow our footsteps and go straight back through the towns we've already hit.
"I wish I'd at least gotten to say goodbye."
At least that way, we don't have another chance of getting side tracked before we get home.
"And also, I don't want her to think I don't like her or something."
But the thing is... Do I really even want to go back home yet?
"But as it stands, up and leaving like this looks really rude." He went on. "I'd expect you to feel the same way. Since you like her, too. Don't you, Madara?"
I certainly don't look any different from when I left... I can't go home yet.
"Madara?"
"Huh?"
Hashirama rolled his eyes.
"What did I just say?"
"Something about...rude? ...I don't know." I said, slipping my hands into my pockets.
"I knew you weren't listening to me."
"Just say it again."
"Nope. Now it'll just be a mystery."
I rolled my eyes.
"Whatever it was, if it's you speaking, I doubt it was important..." I muttered.
UpNext: Though the boys have good intentions with their money, it seems serious danger befalls everyone they touch... Especially once the guys that Hashirama gambled with (ahem, STOLE from) make an epic return! And after all that, visit Mito's past and discover just how imperfect she really is...