Authors Note: Hello everyone! I just wanted to say thanks for all the support you're showing this story! Last chapter we hit over 75 follows and I got a handful more reviews which was absolutely wonderful. I love seeing what you guys think and if your enjoying the story so please continue to give me feedback, I really appreciate it.
Also at the rate this story is going each chapter is getting longer then the last. I actually had more stuff planned for this chapter but it was starting to get away from me so I had to cut it off here and just suck up the fact that the rest of what would of been this chapter will be the one for next week. The other half of the reason I didn't make one really long chapter is because I have to be up in like five hours for work and I really should get to bed, so even though I had a handful of pages left of planning and rough draft that will just wait till next week to get in here.
I really can't wait until shit starts to hit the fan in this story though. Knowing whats coming gives me the shivers of excitement.
Anyways, thank you for the support, I hope we continue to enjoy this ride together!
The next few weeks were a strange silence that only came about when something was suddenly missing from your life. Mom and I slowly adjusted to not having everyone around, the first week was easy as they had gone on week long missions before but never longer than that. Mom was good however at beating away the gloom that threatened our home due to this, and for that I was thankful. However, I found myself even more appreciative at how she went about filling my time during those silent days.
It was early July, only a handful of days away from Itachi's birthday and a month from my own, and I was sitting in Moms lap watching her work of seals. Many people would be surprised to see my Mom work like this, completely calm and focused with a smooth hand as she brushed symbols and characters onto the scroll. It was one of the few times when my Mom was completely calm, and the whole world in those moments just felt at peace.
I found her seal work interesting to say the least. To think that each movement had a purpose, every precise stroke of the brush carried a meaning, and the final designs could morph the world as they pleased. It was incredible what could be done with some knowledge, ink, and creativity. I found them interesting, and so I wanted to learn them. Thankfully my parents always encouraged my curiosity. I lightly tugged on Mom's hair in order to get her attention.
"Mom, can you teach me?" I asked as I let go of her hair to point at the seals. She looked down at me, surprise lightly lacing her features for a moment .
"You want to learn seal work?" She questioned with a cocked eyebrow. I simply nodded at her and she hummed for a moment in thought before smiling.
"I don't see why not. But first things first." She said as she carefully moved aside what she was doing and pulled out a few scrap pieces of paper and another brush and set them up in front of me.
"The first step to learning seals is calligraphy," She explained, "So let's have you get a feel for the brush and able to make smooth lines before getting into actual seal work."
"What happens if the lines aren't smooth?" I questioned, I had never seen one used that wasn't correctly made.
"Bad things." Mom said with a slightly serious look and so I left that at that.
She then took one of the pieces of paper and wrote out the kanjis that make up our names.
"We'll start with something easy and useful, writing your name." She said as she finished writing and looked down at me to make sure I was paying attention. I nodded at her and carefully picked up the brush and dipped it into the ink. My first attempt was pretty horrible, blotchy and shaky. Like a little kid did it, with I was, but still I had never had a particularly hard time picking up a skill before. I huffed a bit and moved to try again before Mom stopped me and adjusted my grip on my brush.
"You're pushing down too much Kami-chan," she said, "your lines won't be as blotchy if you keep your grip lighter and don't push down against the page."
I allowed her to reposition my hand on my brush and tried to keep it in the new position as I tried to do it again. The results, while better than the first time still were pretty horrid. I frowned slightly.
"This is harder than it looked." I bemoaned to her as she chuckled and kissed the top of my head.
"It takes some practice. But proper handwriting is really needed for good seal work. Otherwise-" She trailed off near the end and I decided to finish that thought up for her.
"Bad things?"
She blinked and chuckled before grinning at me.
"Yeah, bad things. Now try again, this time move the brush with your whole arm, not just your wrist."
I nodded and we continued to work at it well into the evening when we stopped for dinner. The next few days were filled with learning how to write in perfect, neat lines and Mom refused to teach me any more until she was positive I had that down. She did however offer Sealing theory while I worked, since it's not like I'd be able to apply the theory into practice without her anyways. She wouldn't of let me.
Sealing, in theory, was rather simple.
"The first step to sealing is preparation." Mom explained as she stopped working on her own seals to watch me work on calligraphy. As slow going as the learning process was, I was clearly improving every day which as encouraging.
"Think about the exploding tags that Dad sometimes uses," She said to me, " First you need to think of what time of explosion you want. The ones we use are for hurting people but theoretically you could make one like a firework. So first you choose what you want the seal to do, but then you have to figure out how that thing happens"
I nodded as I continued to work, it was a simple concept.
"Then once you have how it works you need to know how to make that happen through chakra." She said, smiling as she finished what she was working on and setting it aside. I thought about that point for a moment.
"Then couldn't anything you do with a seal be done without one?" I asked
Mom chuckled,
"Yes. In theory anything that you could do with a seal you could do normally with chakra. The issue is normally you are held back by certain things like… Like in Iwagakure there is a clan of people who can make their chakra explode."
"Like exploding notes." I said, lining up the new info in my mind- (-Hands with mouths plunge into the clay, molding it before sending more of those damn things out. Birds this time, last time spider that jumped and exploded on-) -She nodded
"Exactly. Except you see only they can do that because only that group has the ability to mold their chakra that way." She said, and something told me she was skimming details here but I let it go, assuming they were unimportant to the point.
"So for the rest of us who need something to explode we have to use seals in order to get our chakra to do the same thing." She finished before looking back at me, "Understand?"
I thought on it for a moment before hesitantly replying,
"It's like instructions for your chakra." I summarized and Mom smiled brightly.
"Exactly like that Kami-chan. Which is why working with seals is sometimes nicer then just doing everything normally. Not only that but for some things it's safer to to work it out like seals, like with storage seals."
She paused at the end of that and silence filled the room. I looked over and saw Mom staring at me with a rather serious expression on her face and something unreadable behind her eyes,
"Now Kami-chan, do you know what the most important rule of seal work is?" She asked me.
I shook my head after a moment's thought, she hadn't told me this yet.
"Never, under any circumstances activate a seal if you don't know what it does." She told me, "It's dangerous because a lot of seals, if you activate them wrong or in a certain way, can backfire and really hurt you. If you need to activate a seal, or to disrupt one, or even to get rid of one, you need to make sure you know what it does and how it does it beforehand. Understand?"
I blinked slightly at the serious tone she was using.
"Okay Mom, I promise." I said, putting as much honesty into the statement as I could.
It was easy promising something like this considering I didn't know how to even do half of those things, or even have any reason to do them.
Mom smiled softly at me and gave me a tight hug before pulling away and standing.
"Alright then, just want you to stay safe. Now, how about we go get ramen for dinner?" She said helping me to my feet. I grimaced as I felt pins and needles in my legs from them falling asleep.
"But we had ramen last night Mom!" I lightly protested.
She made a mock gasp and faked looking hurt,
"Kami-chan! Ramen is the best food in the whole world! Are you telling me you don't like it anymore?"
I giggled at this,
"I never said that Mom, just no one likes ramen as much as you do."
Which was the truth and she knew it because she laughed as we went to put on our shoes and leave.
Kept busy from the crash course in seals I was getting the week passed by quickly and suddenly Itachi's birthday was upon us. We had been invited this year on the account that Itachi and I were becoming 'the best of friends', as my Mom liked to say to Mikoto whenever we played together. Which wasn't exactly a lie I suppose, though this might of been more due to the fact that the two of us didn't seem to have many, if any, other friends besides each other. Still we got along well enough for a couple of children.
I hadn't really been prepared for the Uchiha's birthday party however, as I'd only been to the birthdays my family had thrown for each other and those tended to be just the six of us. My parents, my practically-adoptive-siblings, and me. Itachi's birthday however was bigger. A lot bigger, as in a large amount of the clan had seemed to be invited along to the party which made sense as most people in the clan knew each other and if you went back enough generations were probably related in some way, shape, or form.
Still, it really made Mom and I stick out. Red and strawberry blonde among a sea of dark hair and eyes.
I fidgeted next to Mom, gripping Itachi's present a bit tighter in my hands because I could feel the eyes on me and it was more than a bit disconcerting. I felt my back straighten more than usual at we wove through the crowd towards Mikoto. She smiled when she saw us and politely ended the conversation with another woman before greeting us.
"Kushina, Kami-chan. I'm glad to see you two could make it." She said lightly, looking between us. Mom gave her usual bright grin.
"Like we would miss little Itachi-chan's birthday, right Kami-chan?"
I nodded and shifted the present in my hands as Mom chuckled at my quiet response.
"She's not used to the crowds." Mom quietly said, loud enough for me to hear though and I pouted at her.
"Mom," I whined a bit, "I'm fine."
Mikoto giggled behind a hand,
"I'm sure you have the situation under control Kami-chan." She said lightly, clearly teasing me and I felt myself flush a bit at that. I pouted and offered up Itachi's present.
"Mikoto-san, where should I put Itachi-kun's gift?" I asked, hoping to draw the topic away from my clear discomfort. To my relief it worked at Mikoto took the present from me.
"I'll take care of that Kami-chan. Now let's see," She said and looked around for a moment with a scrutinizing expression before smiling, "Ah there they are, the other kids are near the forest if you want to go play."
I nodded and relaxed slightly at the out that was presented.
"Thank you Mikoto-san." I chirped and smiled sweetly before quickly moving away through the crowds in the direction indicated.
The Uchiha compound backed into one of the larger forests inside the village on the northern side. It was a good half mile thick on the thinnest parts before you hit the main wall going around the village, the forest however also went much farther to the east and west than it did smashed between the wall and the compound itself. Usually we weren't supposed to running around in the forest, mostly because enough wrong turns and you'd end up accidentally on the other side of town and would have to make your way back. But most kids once hitting a certain stage ignored that rule and ran around it to their hearts content. The adults tended to not be too strict on the rule either, which also helped, and so the forest was pretty well traveled at least between the compound and the wall. And that's where I found the group of children.
Now the Uchiha clan was weird in the fact that usually it didn't have very many kids at one time. In most parts of the village there seemed to be more kids born every few years then in between, it wasn't that sporadic and everyone was used to the fact that some years there was a large influx of babies while others there were only a hundred or so births. The Uchiha clan didn't follow this trend, instead they had very sporadic and random birth rates that didn't seem to correlate to anything. This wasn't really a problem or anything, however as far as I knew in the year that I was born there were very few Uchiha children born as well, Itachi being one of them. So this group of kids that were playing at the edge of the forest ranged in ages between three, myself and probably Itachi being the youngest of kids actively running about, and twelve, right before most of the kids graduated from the academy and became adults in the eyes of society.
The main group looked to be playing a very intense game of ninja considering it was about fifteen kids big and some of them actually knew what they were doing. Itachi was sitting off to the side, occasionally looking over at them but mostly looking like he was doing his own thing. Glancing at the other kids and deciding it wasn't even worth getting involved in their game, especially since it was already started, I headed over and sat next to Itachi. He looked over at me and smiled slightly.
"Hello Kaminari-chan." He said, his attention now split between me and the group
"Hey Itachi-kun, happy birthday." I greeted back before watching some twelve year old tackle another kid after he had gotten tripped a moment before.
"How long have they all been doing this?" I questioned aloud and Itachi shifted next to me.
"About an hour." He replied simply and I wondered if he had been just sitting here watching them the entire time. He glanced over and seeing my face he explained further,
"I played the first round before all the older kids showed up, then they didn't want we to play anymore."
Ah, that made sense seeing how he had probably been the youngest kid here that wasn't stuck being towed about by their parents still. But that still was pretty rude of them to do.
"Considering you're the birthday boy you'd think they would've found something to play with you." I stated, glaring a bit at the group of kids now.
Itachi just shrugged
"I don't really mind not playing with them," He pointed out, "I'm okay with being by myself."
I looked over at him and pouted,
"Are you suggesting that I leave you alone Itachi-kun?"
Itachi blinked for a moment before getting a slight frown and managing the most mortified look I'd ever seen him make,
"No, I'd never suggest that."
I continued to fake hurt until he squirmed a bit, looking guilty and I couldn't stop the small giggle from leaving me followed by laughing.
"I know, I know." I said, trying to come down from the laughter, "Don't worry, I know we're friends."
Itachi was quiet for a moment before smiling slyly and mimicking in a surprisingly light tone, "The best of friends."
I stared at him, a bit slack jawed, because mocking my Mom was not something I had expected him to do. I snorted before cracking up in laughter.
The best of friends indeed.
My own birthday was, as expected, a much smaller affair than Itachi's had been. We had less people in the family, as stated before, and out of that small family over half of us were out fighting in the war. Furthermore the few of Dad's friends that occasionally would stop by were also deployed and there for the party really only consisted of Mikoto, Mom, Itachi, and I. I really couldn't complain about this, externally at least.
Internally I bemoaned the lack of my full family being here. I missed them, it had been a little more than a month since we had seen or heard from them and the radio silence was really starting to get to me. I mean on one hand it was the start of a war, chances were that unnecessary messages weren't being sent and wouldn't be sent until we found our footing in it. Currently the only messages being sent back to families waiting for their loved ones were the ones informing the family that said love ones met their fate on the field.
Thinking of that I supposed it was probably a good thing we hadn't heard anything yet. It meant that everyone was alive as far as anyone knew.
Itachi and I sat side by side messing with my new calligraphy set that Mom had gotten for me. I was mostly doodling with it and occasionally practicing the few sealing symbols I knew while Itachi was attempting to learn calligraphy after I had shown him my own progress on the subject. He had only been working at it for a couple of hours and was already improving leaps and bounds.
Watching him finish writing out his name I huffed slightly,
"You are doing way better then I was doing when I first started." I commented, not really upset about it.
Itachi paused before looking over at me,
"It's a lot harder than it looks," He admitted before staring at the brush in his hand and furrowing his brow as he regarded it, "I have to hold my breath every time I make a line to keep it even so I have to go really slow."
"That's the hardest part," I agreed before grinning slightly, "just wait, if you end up trying to learn sealing though there are a ton of weird symbols you have to remember."
The step I was on, memorization of current sealing patterns and shapes. It was tedious to say the least.
Itachi smiled slightly at that and the two of us quietly went back to work, only being interrupted a few minutes later by the sound of the front door opening.
"I'm home!" A distinctly tired but familiar voice rang out as footsteps entered the room.
I couldn't help the grin that broke across my face and the jolt of excitement that cause me to stand up and run over, slamming into the man with a hug.
"Dad! You're home!" I exclaimed, not caring that I was pointing out the obvious because I was tearing up at that moment in excitement of seeing him. He smelled of dirt, sweat, and iron but in that moment none of that mattered because he was here, he was home.
Dad let out a small laugh and dropped his bag to the side, scooping me up instead and pulling me into a tight hug.
"Sorry I took so long," He softly apologized and kissed the top of my head, " I tried to come home as fast as I could, didn't want to miss your birthday after all."
I giggled but it turned into an undignified noise as Mom suddenly crushed me between herself and Dad as she pulled us into a hug.
"Finally! Not even a letter Minato? Really? You had us worried sick!" Mom dramatically complained jokingly for the most part as she glared at him, a smile still on her lips.
Dad had the decency to look sheepish.
"I'm sorry Kushina, it was a long month and no one was able to get anything sent back home. I tried, trust me."
Mom let go of us in order to put her hands on her hips and managed to stop smiling in favor of an angry pout.
"We'll then, next time you're going to have to try harder."
Dad smiled sweetly and kissed her forehead,
"I promise I'll try harder next time, so forgive me?"
Mom managed to hold up the angry look for a few more moments before letting out a small laugh,
"Fine. Not like I could stay mad at you anyways, you're such a dork."
I ignored the flirting going on around me and instead pulled Dads hair lightly to get him attention.
"Dad, did everyone else come home too?" I questioned, noticing the distinct lack of pseudo-siblings about.
Dad looked at me, smiling.
"Yeah we all came home," He said, "Everyone else just went to go clean up before coming over."
I grinned at that and gave Dad another tight hug before squirming out of his arms with a mumbled, "Best birthday present ever." Which caused Dad to chuckle and grin back as he helped me back onto the floor.
It didn't take long for Kaka-nii to show up after that, what with him practically living here half the time anyways. Rin-nee followed not long after looking tired but happy and Obi-nii managed to get in a half-hour after her claiming some story about having to get a cat out of a tree. Each of them received a hug from me and an even bigger one from Mom followed by Mom checking them all over exclaiming loudly over every bruise they managed to get on the field.
It became quite a loud evening but I wouldn't of had it any other way.