The Boy in the Park
Chapter Six
His mother nagged at him for being disrespectful —not going to the cemetery on the day his grandparents died. He didn't care. He was out before she could comment. It was the Tenth of October, and in the afternoon, he had better things to do then dress in black and go mourn on a tombstone.
He had a box in his hand, closed and with a nice red ribbon on it. He was particularly proud of the ribbon: it looked like a mixture of red knots and whatnot, but he had given it a ribbon-like form.
Ichiraku Ramen wasn't bustling with activities, and as he entered the stall he was surprised to be the first one there. The owner looked at him for a moment, before smiling. "They're in the back, upstairs," he said.
He nervously nodded before walking through the stall's backdoor and towards the stairs —the stall had the upper floor converted to living space after all. He knocked on the door trying to put up a nervous smile.
The door opened slightly, and then closed once more.
He could actually hear a female voice exclaiming.
"There's a Yakuza at the door!"
What? Where? He looked around and frowned. He had no tattoos, he was wearing his usual clothes —maybe a bit darker than normal— and he clearly was not sporting a weapon.
"That's got to be Aniki!" the exclaiming done from Naruko actually told him he hadn't been wrong on the door to tap —albeit there was only one.
The door sprung open again, and Naruko was there with a bright smile on her face and her eyes shining brightly, especially when she saw the box in his hands. "Aniki!" she grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him inside. "You came!"
"Y-Yes," he said nervously, as he was literally brought in the entranceway of a normal-looking apartment —albeit one above a ramen stall. The smell of ramen hung in the air, but it wasn't a bad smell at all. There was a cheap wood table with a cake sitting on it, and as his gaze moved around he saw who had done the 'Yakuza!' exclamation.
She was two years younger than he was, with round puffy cheeks and a half-scared look. He raised an eyebrow.
"N-Naruko-chan! He's…is he Yakuza?" she mumbled to the younger girl's ear. The twelve years old girl had brown hair and dark eyes, and she was wearing a simple white yukata.
"Nah! Aniki's Aniki! He's…" she frowned for a moment.
"A student in middle school," he replied as he offered his own name to the girl, who made a light bow as she embarrassedly looked away.
A small gift was already unwrapped in a corner, and judging by the pair of red ribbons that Naruko now sported for her ponytails, he had no doubts on what the gift could have been.
"Happy birthday, Naruko," he said then slowly as he handed over his own gift to the girl. Her eyes widened as she grabbed the heavy box, which outright ended up falling on the ground as the seven years old girl —recently made— looked ecstatic at it.
"Oh! Oh! What is it Aniki? Kunai? Shurikens? We're starting on kunai soon at the academy you know?" she began to fight against the knots, until she finally surrendered to her curiosity and bit the ribbons off like some sort of feral animal. Ayame giggled at the display, while he just brought up an eyebrow.
As the lid fell off the box, there was a moment of silence.
A neat stack of books was inside, all speaking of shinobi adventures of this sort or the other —all books he had stopped reading since discovering it would be useless to fantasize about it. It was half a dozen of them —albeit he had far more at home, but he had picked up his favourites to begin with.
Naruko carefully opened the first book —Tales of the Utterly Gutsy Kunoichi— and read the dedication on the first page.
Good luck on being a Kunoichi, Naruko-chan!
It was extremely sappy. He refused to admit he had written that, but then again a note of sorts had to be written on gifts, right?
The next moment Naruko began to cry.
"W-What? Hey! Come on," he said perplexed. "You don't like—"
"No!" she exclaimed suddenly, jumping on the box as if they were precious gold bars. "I like them, Aniki! I like them very much!" she babbled quickly.
He sighed in relief, before slowly letting his right hand fall on the girl's head —to pat it. She frowned for a bit as she dried off the tears, before chuckling nervously. Naruko's whiskered face looked up at him expectantly for a moment more, her eyes still shining from the glittering tears.
"Thanks," she whispered.
"Aw…" Ayame said. "It's so cute," she giggled. "Neh, Onii-san," the girl said looking at him. Wait, since when was he an Onii-san now?
Not even his sister called him onii-san. He was sort-of the 'stupid brother'.
"Y-yes?"
"She's purring," Ayame giggled as she pointed at Naruko, who was actually purring from being patted on the head. He blinked once, and then he chuckled.
A few hours later —which passed playing cards and table games, and 'Teuchi' joined them afterwards. The Hokage himself arrived at dinnertime, and the cake that had been on the table since then was finally unwrapped from its box. It had seven candles, all a sparkling pink. The chocolate writing on it looked placed later as the words 'happy birthday' and 'Naruko' looked penned by a different hand.
"Well, Naruko-chan," the Hokage said then with a dry chuckle. "Make a wish."
Naruko's cheeks filled with air as she inhaled, before blowing out the candles when she exhaled. As the plumes of smoke rose, and the party girl received the first cut of the cake, the Hokage laughed lightly. "Well, what did you wish for Naruko-chan?"
"I can't say that!" Naruko said with her cheeks slightly rosy, "Or it won't come true Jiji!"
"Ah," the Sandaime shook his head with a grin on his face. "I see, well…I hope you like my gift instead," as he said that, he took out a similar box to that he had used for his books. Naruko excitedly opened it, and then made a small 'aw' sound.
"THANKS JIJI, YOU'RE THE BEST!" she tackled the old man, as he gave just a sideway glance into the box. There was a pair of goggles. He exhaled in relief. Had it been a kunai, he would have probably taken a few steps backwards just in case. Really…who hands over a kunai to a child?
Right, the Academy…but then again they did that once they knew they shouldn't toy with them.
As laughter filled the air that would be the first birthday the boy in the park had together with Naruko Uzumaki…but it certainly wouldn't be the last.