Broken Seashells

Suigetsu

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I grew up in the slums of the big apple. Brooklyn New York at it's finest, baby. My dad was never there, and my pure blood Finnish mother never had her head in the right place whenever she was there. So that's how it was for me growing up. Sounds fun right?

I hung out with the rest of the kids from the streets and played with the bums, coming home in time to watch the men pool into the apartment and drink beer and smoke cigarettes. They would always boss my mom and the other girls around like they were nothing. And what really irritated me was the all the ladies that were getting bossed around wouldn't even talk back to the men.

Girls are stupid, I think. I don't like them.

Of course, growing up in this kind of environment, I didn't go to school, but that doesn't mean I wasn't educated. The truth was actually far from it. I could pick-pocket better than anyone I knew and I could swim and run like greased lightning, (whatever the heck that was). I knew all the allyways and a lot of underground tunnels that helped me escape from getting caught by adults. I could hot-wire a car, fake tears with a sob story, and topple anyone my size with a good right hook.

Fighting with the other boys was always really fun. Some of the older ones used to say I acted like my brother when he was my age. I wouldn't know since he died a long time ago in a gun fight. I think he was thirteen at the time. That's when mom started getting into her drugs. Guns are for cowards. I take all my enemies down with fist one and two....or was it three and one...I forget.

But, anyway, I was one of the top dogs when it came to the boys my age. No one could beat me and the other guys at least respected me for that. Sometimes when the men came to hang out in our apartment they would let me try their cigarets. I hated them but I tried them all the same, to prove to them that I was a real man. I think they respected me for trying. When they laughed at me they wouldn't yell at my mom. That made me happy. I liked the feeling of protecting someone. My mom needed a lot of protecting.

There was a lot of bad, illegal stuff going on around me, most of the time involving me, but the boys in blue never seemed to wise up and knock on our doors. I heard that some of the men bribed their cop friends not to get involved with their underground dealings. So, I guess you could say life was flowing fine for me.

But I wasn't happy.

Then the day came when the boys in blue broke up the party for good. No more crappy apartment to come home to. No more home at all. Bribes were no good against something this big. Apparently there had been a huge killing at the Uchihas and some of the guys that hung out at our house were suspects.

Somehow that tracked down my mom's sister in New Jersy and dumped me with her.

She had a boyfriend that wanted me to call him dad, even though he and my aunt wern't planning on getting married anytime soon. I told him I didn't have a dad and he wasn't anything like the dad I wanted and shouted some other bad words I picked up from the adults. He hit me with his belt...a lot.

I hated him.

Sometimes he would come home with my aunt Karin and try to get me to do weird things, like try a new drink or suck bad smoke. I always said no, not liking how it made them act funny. One night, he came back really, really dizzy and tried to force me to do it with a weird cigaret. I didn't want to so I cursed at him and spit at him in the face before running out the window and down the fire escape where he couldn't chase me. When he tried to I saw him run into the wall.

He was a huge idiot.

I hung out with the bums for a few weeks before going back to find them both passed out on the couch. The air smelled funny and I didn't like they way it made my stomach hop and squeeze. I tried asking my Aunt Karin what was making the smell but she wouldn't wake up. The same was for her boyfriend. Neither of them were moving. I tried to look and see if they were breathing, but only my red haired aunt was still making little breaths. Her boyfriend wasn't, but maybe that was because they were so small I couldn't find them. It did take me a long time before I could hear Aunt Karin breathing at first.

I got scared and ran down to the neighbors that I liked. They were an old couple that were always really nice to me even though my Aunt Karin said they were high and mighty smart buts. (Sakura gets sad when I curse now, so I don't).

They didn't like my aunt or her boyfriend, but they liked me and gave me cookies and treats whenever I came to visit them. I think they knew something about how that guy would hurt me, since they were the ones that put cream on my welts.

I told them about my Aunt Karin and her boyfriend. They called more of the police that scared me and they took my Aunt to the hospital and her boyfriend somewhere else, since he had died from a drug overdosage. My aunt was only in a coma, but it didn't look like she would be waking up any time soon. The bad smell was her boyfriend's body breaking down and decaying, I heard from one of the police men.

I was happy he was gone. He wouldn't be able to yell at me or curse or hurt me anymore. That was a good feeling.

The old couple that I liked took care of me for a few days before a man named Zabuza came to take me away. Apparently they were old friends of this guy. Kind of like adoptive parents to him I think. The old gramps and this Zabuza used to work in the shipping business a long time ago before old age forced the older of the two to the man that was going to adopt me was extremely well off. (That means filthy stinking rich!)

He already had one son by birth and two other adopted boys. I didn't like the tall one at first. He looked like a bully. I learned later on, that he had a speech problem and was actually a huge scardy cat that slept with stuffed animals! Ha! Haku was too girly and nice to have any fun with and Kimimaro was a know it all that liked annoying me all the time. I know he enjoys it, I just do!

Regardless we were a pretty tight family. But we became even tighter when Sakura came to us.

She was always so shy and quiet, only talking with single words at a time. I told my brothers I found it annoying, because that's what annoys real men, but I couldn't help but feel the urge and need to protect her. Maybe sometimes, quite possibly in the back of mind, I may think her... cutewhenshesmiles!

But it's not fair how much time she spends indoors playing with Juugo on those stupid DS things. And then Haku is always playing dolls with her and Kimimaro likes to teach her how to play the piano. She almost never has time to play with me outside! It's so unfair how all my brothers monopolize her all the time. I want to play with her too!

She's kind of (really) slow and awkward when running, but she really likes chasing me on the beach. So, to make her feel better, I let her catch me sometimes. If it's a really sandy spot, I'll grab her and tumble her into the sand dunes. And no, it's not just an excuse so that I can hug her. That's a stupid idea and it would never be true because I don't like girls and I think they still have cooties.

Soon summer break was over and we had to go to back to school and learn a bunch of useless stuff. I was older than Sakura and was meant to be in the grade above her, but because I had never gone to school before, aside from the home tutoring, I was pulled back a grade.

I was kind of thankfully to be stuck in the same class as my sister. She was really smart and learned fast. If I asked nicely she would give me help. I ended up getting a lot of help from her. Haku was too smart (stupid) to have to ask Sakura for help, but sometimes I think he was tempted to fail just to get close to the youngest of his siblings.

"Will you help me with this paper Sakura? I don't know what to write for my sentences."

She didn't say anything back, but eagerly nodded, pulling out her own homework (completed of course) to help me with mine. She pulled out a sparkly pink pencil with Hello Kitty dancing around with My Melody and a brown one with Digimon characters. I took the Digimon one with a smile.

"I need to write a sentence with the words Tranquil and Amber. What does Tranquil mean?"

"It means peaceful. Like how the ocean is when there aren't any waves or wind."

Her voice was soft and small, never very loud. She's always been like that ever since she came to us when she was six. I don't think I've ever heard her scream or shout loudly. When she screams it's like a small mouse squeak. I have only heard her scream once, and that was when we surprised her with a surprised party on her Birthday in spring.

"How can I use that in a sentence with Amber? That's a color, right?"

"It's a honey yellow color."

Sakura knew so much more than me, even though I was almost a year older than her. "You're so smart and helpful, Sakura. I'm glad you're able to help me!"

My little sister smiled proudly, enjoying the complement, blushing slightly. Everyone told her she was smart, but I told her I was smart and helpful. So, I was complementing her more than the other people.

"What are you going to do for your sentences?" she asked.

"I don't know. What did you do?"

She looked down at her paper and pointed to the sentence she had written down. "An Amber shine grows across the tranquil waters of my ocean in the backyard."

"That's so like you Sakura. You're so good at this," I huffed, a bit depressed. I would never be as good as my sister when it came to writing.

She shook her head and smiled brilliantly at me, making my heart squeeze tight. "You can do it, I'll help you get started. What is tranquil to you?"

"Kimimaro."

"...Okay. How can we relate Kimamaro to the color amber?"

I think this over for a moment before replying. "Maybe he likes the color amber?"

"That's a good idea, write it down."

I messilly scratch out my brother's name and the selected word before adding a few others to make a sentence. Once finished, I beamed with pride showing it to Sakura. "Here, I'm done look it over and tell me if it's right!"

She took it and read it over in her head, smiling. "Its good, but you shouldn't call Kimimaro stupid. The teacher might get upset."

"Will you help me with the next one?"

"Sure."

Sakura's handwriting was neat and flourished, often slipping into cursive like styles. Mine kind of looked like chicken scratch. I kicked Haku after he told me that, even if didn't mean it as an insult. Sakura told me my hand writing would get better the more I write. That must be why dad's handwriting is so good. He has to write a lot of stuff for work for different people. Uncle Kisame doesn't write a lot, though, and his handwriting is still better than mine. Maybe that's because he's so old. (Don't let him know I thought that!)

Sakura likes to write a lot. She writes more than she talks I think. I'm happy she talks to me at all, though. The first week she lived with us, I think she said a whole thirteen words in all. I can't go an hour without saying more than thrice that number. Many believed her to be a mute before she came here, Haku told me when I asked him about it. I wonder what it was life for her to be so silent for such a long time...

I was almost done with my homework paper when I got to a word I didn't recognize. Our teacher went over all of these words in class yesterday, but I hardly ever payed attention to what she was saying so of course I didn't remember most of it. I didn't want to go and look it up in a dictionary so I decided to ask my sister about it.

I tugged on Sakura's sleeve. "What's this word mean, Sakura?"

"What is it?"

"Sc-rum-ptious..." I wrinkled my nose at the funny sounding word.

She read over the word on her own paper and smiled. "It's Scrumptious and it means tasty. Like the German pankackes daddy makes us on Christmas!"

"I like the doughnuts you made us for class last week. I wish you didn't have to take them in and share them with everybody. They were so good I could have eaten them all, by myself."

"Then I'll make you some more next week."

"I like the ones with powered sugar on them! Will you make more of those for me?" I almost drooled at the thought of her famous homemade doughnuts. They looked weird at first because the batter was uneven in parts but they were really tasty.

She nodded and I couldn't help but smile and cheer a little. It was even better to eat something sweet knowing Sakura made them. Lately, my sister has been spending a lot of time in the kitchen, experimenting with sever different recipes for sweets. She tried cooking regular meals like for dinner a few times, but didn't like it as much as baking. This was robally because she had to sample everything she made before giving it to us. She called it quality control.

Dad would have to help her with the measuring sometimes if she wanted to double or half a certain recipe. She didn't really like math that much, and I don't blame her for it. It's boring and useless as far as I can tell. Still, she's better at it than me so I go to her for tutoring in that field as well.

The only downside to this is that Haku is just as bad at math as me and will often joins our little sessions. Sometimes Kimimaro will help all three of us with math since he's so much better at it than all of us combined. He is a grade above us, after all. I sometimes wish I could be smart like that so Sakura would have to look up to me for help. I wish I could help her and not have to be the one always needing help.

Just like she promised, Sakura made another batch of doughnuts for me...and the rest of our brothers. But at least she didn't share them with the entire class like she had to last time.

There were two boys and a girl that had told her that her doughnuts weren't very good and that they didn't like getting fat on things that aren't tasty. That was also the time I had gotten in trouble for beating Zaku up behind the tire-swing on the playground. At least he was man enough to lie and say we were just play wrestling to keep both of us out of trouble.

Next time I'm giving him and his friends two black eyes instead of one.

I know that Kin girl is just jealous of Sakura because she has Haku for a brother is so much more prettier that the brown eyed girl will ever be. I think she likes Haku, since she's always following him around and smiling at him and lending him her crayons. She even asked to be partners with him when we had to do a book report on The Giving Tree. She knew Haku and Sakura were close, being brother and sister, and got angry at that.

Dosu was just plain mean. He was sort of the leader of the pack and the biggest bully in the whole school. He didn't even have a reason for tormenting Sakura and when asked why he would make fun of her and saw those mean things, he would just reply with a 'I don't need a reason to make fun of you' sort of reply. He was really annoying, especially since he was sometimes stronger than me. Of course I'm stronger than him most of the time, duh.

And last but not least, there's Zaku Abumi, my most hated arch nemesis...sist... however you say it. I hate him the most since he has the worst reason for picking on Sakura. He actually has a crush on her! It's so stupid! If you have a crush on someone you don't beat them up and fight with them! The only time you can do that and get away with it is if you are Mr. Darcy and have a big house in Pemberly. Otherwise, nothing is going to work for you. This is why I fight with him the most. He's the worst, having a crush on my sister and picking in her at the same time. How dare he even look at her! I hate that type of guy.

Needless to say, once I got Kimimaro and Juugo involved, the bullying around Sakura magically stopped. Later I heard Dosu and Kin moved away while Zaku was transferred to a different class in the same grade for some reason. We still saw him on the playground but he never bothered us ever again.

For Christmas that year, Dad made German pancakes again and Sakura made apple fritters. They were really unhealthy and super tasty. We all got lots of presents and Uncle Kisame was there with his share of gifts for us as well. We all had fun playing in the mountain of wrapping paper that had been stacked into a huge pile. Even if Kimimaro claimed to have been too old to play such silly games, he wouldn't say no when Sakura asked him.

"All of you are so immature," my oder brother huffed with a bright red bow stuck to his hair.

"You look cute, Kimmy!" Sakura laughed, sticking another green one to his hair.

"Hmm," was all he said, trying to hide his smile and retain his cool older brother vibe.

Juugo and Haku laughed with me as we watched from the pile of colorful wrapping paper.

"Alright kiddies,that's it for our gifts. Now, it's time to exchange presents among yourselves," Dad called from the kitchen, sitting with his mug of warm coffee, complete with bobbing mini marshmallows from Sakura. Kisame stood behind him leaning against the counter with his own coffee.

Every year around Christmas, dad would give us one hundred dollars each and we would have to buy presents for each other. I always got my brothers Nerf guns and Haku would give us all something like a snow-globe or a ceramic figurine; something pretty to put on a shelf. Kimimaro got us practical gifts like books and writing stuff. (Sakura and Juugo are the only ones that like the books from him.) Juugo would get us all different things. Sometimes they were action figures and sometimes it was manga books and anime movies we wanted to see.

I liked presents from Sakura the best, because they were always interesting. This year she got us all Native American jewelry from the Hopi tribe that was selling their goods outside the Grand Canyon in Arizona. For me she got a necklace on a brown leather cord with a silver bear charm at the end. There was a pretty red jewel in the bear's stomach that made it look fierce to me.

"The Hopi looked up to the bear as a symbol of power," she explained as I opened my gift. "They also looked up to them in respect for the protective strength their mother's had for their cubs. Nothing was scarier than a mother defending her cubs. This made me think of you and how you always protect me."

Haku's was of a turtle representing, healing, knowledge, and long life, with it's large turquoise stone sitting as its shell. Haku loved turtles, ever since he saw Finding Nemo with the rest of us so he really liked it. For Juugo she got a deer with an amber brown stone, representing Love, gentleness, kindness, and sensitivity. I could see how she could attribute that to Juugo the gentle giant. And lastly for Kimimaro she got a Silver wolf with a purple stone set in the middle that stood for teaching skill, Loyalty, Interdependence and of course, wisdom. A fitting gift for a math tutor.

Even though she didn't have to, she got one for Uncle Kisame and dad. Uncle got a Shark pendant and Dad got a beaver.

"Why a beaver?" I asked, not seeing how my cool and awesomely powerful dad could be something as small and...useless as a beaver. Now, Uncle Kisame as a shark, I could see, but dad as a beaver? How did she make the connection there? Regardless, he seemed to really like it.

"Because Beavers were respected as the greatest builders, and daddy is the greatest builder in the world!"

"But dad is not a builder. He works with ships."

She smiled brightly up at me, knowing dad was listening. "But daddy built this family with me and you and Haku and Juugo and Kimmy and Uncle Kisame. That's why I think he's the greatest builder ever!"

I'm happy, I got to be part of this building project.

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AU/ At the end the story kind of took over and wrote it's self out. I had wanted to write an ending leaning more towards Sui, but it looks like Daddy got the end of this chapter more so than I had planned. Once again, I had tons of fun writing this, especially since Sakura's with my favorite characters. Once I got going, it was like a lead ball down a steep hill. I just couldn't stop.

And once again, I think I have to blame Lady Hanaka for inspiring me to write this much in one chapter and actually update it after so long. I'm a lazy bum that should get kicked and threatened into writing more than I have. *sniff* I don't deserve such attention, let alone such beautiful art!

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Vesper chan