The Boy in the Park
Chapter Thirty-Four
There was a moment of silence as Sakura looked down towards him like some sort of half-crazed banshee. That moment lasted until Naruko's blond blur slammed into Sakura and sent them both to tumble of the floor.
He stood up calmly, deciding to ignore everything he had heard. He went to make breakfast as the two girls fought in the background.
"Let me go, Naruko! Onii-sama and I aren't tied by blood, so we can make babies! I'll name my first daughter after you!"
He shuddered. He was trying hard to ignore Sakura's rants.
"Aniki doesn't want that! Can't you see? And what of the half plus seven rule!? You have to wait!"
Sakura stopped for a moment, before tapping at her forehead protector. "Old enough to kill, old enough to make babies."
She jumped ahead, slamming Naruko into the wall before charging ahead at Shinku.
In that moment, Shinku twirled his frying pan number two, and with a strong 'thunk!' sent Sakura to wobble back holding on to her forehead.
"O…Onii-samaaa!" Sakura sobbed. "It hurt!"
"You have a forehead protector," he deadpanned back. "And I'm a civilian while you're…'old enough to kill', I doubt I actually did anything to your brain."
"Sniffle," Sakura wiped away her tears. "Onii-sama promised!"
"I did not," he hung his head. "I don't know where you got that idea."
"B-But you said it!" Sakura yelled back.
Naruko remained with her eyes slightly narrowed on Sakura, before turning to look at him. He frowned. "I think you just misunderstood, Sakura," he added then gently.
"But…" Sakura's eyes had tears in them. "Onii-sama…you saw me naked…I'll never be a bride if you don't take responsibility!"
Naruko sputtered and turned red.
"WHAT!? ANIKI!?"
"You were three! They asked me to bathe you!" Shinku sputtered out.
Sakura just sniffled. "You saw my forb—"
"IF you call it 'forbidden place', I'm throwing you another frying pan," Shinku deadpanned. He blinked once. He had the feeling he had just done a horrendous play on words.
"Aniki!" Naruko said then pouting. "It's not fair!"
He blinked.
"What isn't?"
"I want Aniki to wash my back too!"
He closed his eyes.
He opened them again.
He carefully placed down the breakfast on the table and sat down, beginning to eat with the uttermost calm and composure.
"Aniki?" Naruko prodded on.
He finished eating, and then he walked out to go to work completely ignoring the issue.
That was the way to go with certain things. Things he would not touch even with prongs.
It was as he was settling down marks on the papers, and as he saw Iruka enter, that he gave the man a one over and finally decided to ask.
"Umino-san?"
"Yes?" Iruka said back.
He was about to open his mouth once more, but then decided against it. He couldn't actually find the right words. What could he say? 'Naruko wants me to bathe her'?
"Nothing," he replied smoothly. He did get a perplexed gaze from Iruka, but it ended there.
He supposed it was normal among family members to wash one another, when they had a younger sister or brother or when their parent was there but…
But Naruko was old enough to wash herself alone, and really, it wasn't proper in any way. He
Once he finished working —and educating one of the first years classes on the benefits of using frying pans as self-defence instruments— he stepped out in the cooling air of Konohagakure, and with his shoulders squared marched on…towards the Archives.
Of course, it wasn't that he was trying to avoid the discussion back at home —certainly not!
He was just trying to find out earlier about it, and that was all. He stepped inside, showed his badge of academy instructor, and was directed without a fuss down in the archives.
The place was eerily quiet. There were nothing but rows upon rows of metallic drawers and papers —scattered papers— all around.
He exhaled slowly. He had a long way to go.
Naruko knew something was wrong with Aniki. He was doing his best to avoid her now, and that…that hurt. Maybe she shouldn't have said that, but didn't family wash one another like, with a towel and stuff? Didn't families laugh and play throwing soap in each other's eyes and things like that? And it wasn't fair that Sakura got it and she didn't.
Aniki was supposed to be her brother! So why hadn't he answered her? Maybe she had offended him?
She stood, ears perked up and ready, for him to return home. She giggled for a moment at that. Sakura in the end had to go back to her house, with her stupid lying mother, but she? She got to sleep in the same house as Aniki, and she could call that house 'home' because Aniki was there.
She balled her fists, as the clock ticked by. Her Aniki was half an hour later than usual. She could feel the fabric of her orange jumpsuit's extend slightly —she had bought them because they were cool, and being slightly elastic, they grew with her— as she pinched on the borders and fiddled with the zipper.
Aniki was now an hour late.
Naruko supposed he had remained to work an hour more, but he certainly was going to be back for dinner because Aniki never was late for dinner.
One minute later, and Naruko went ballistic.
She was never good at the waiting game. A hand seal later, and a horde of Naruko clones began to scour around Konoha. Of course, they were just hanging around on the rooftops —she hadn't purposefully created them to look for her Aniki.
Her worry grew when they all returned one after the other, to tell her they hadn't seen him.
She swallowed her nervousness down. Aniki supposedly had an Anbu guard, so he was safe. Really, she was worrying for nothing. She returned home, and she waited once more.
The apartment's air felt heavy. Naruko fidgeted a moment more, before realizing just how horrible the dust on the table looked. She proceeded to clean it up.
She went to water the plants.
She turned on the radio, but then turned it off after a few moments —what if Aniki knocked and she didn't hear him? Then again, he had the keys, but what if he had lost them?
She wasn't supposed to worry. Her Aniki was fine. He. Was. Fine.
"It's not like…he has enemies right?" she muttered to herself. "They must have held him in the academy, yeah right…it has to be that 'ttebayo."
She bit down on her lips hard, as she crossed her arms over her chest. What if it was her fault? Maybe she shouldn't have asked…but Aniki had never acted like this before!
That's when she remembered the words of the night before. Her Aniki had told her perverted teacher what he intended to gift her…and she had been scared.
What if she really did have family left? Would they want her? And if they did, what of Aniki? Aniki had lost his own family for her, and she'd repay him by leaving him again? No, no, that wouldn't be right at all! And she had looked through the archives, she had checked time and time again! There was nothing in there, really.
But what if there was? What if her Aniki, smart as he was, found something she had missed? It wouldn't be the first time, like when he asked for the salt and she couldn't find it in the cupboard, only for him to come around and point it out.
What if…what if he didn't want her anymore? No! No, that was stupid to even think about!
She'd do it her way: she'd ask him when he came back, really.
She just had to remain awake.
Shinku grabbed a chair and then narrowed his eyes.
The rat —as big as a small dog— eyed him back, showing a wicked glint of mischief in them.
"Be a nice, little, mouse and let me through," he said slowly, taking careful steps past the monster to reach for the 'U' archives at the end.
The rat squeaked, then it attacked.
He screamed his way out of that particular section of the archives, the rat quickly on his tail —that was ironic, because the rat had a tail, he didn't. He wheezed out of breath five rows later, and then weakly turned around to sigh in relief. The rat hadn't followed him past that. How had Naruko managed?
He groaned as he realized he was back in the F rows. He had no idea how the alphabetical order went: F wasn't supposed to be five rows away from U, but considering it was a shinobi village…
And did he just see the row change as he blinked his eyes?
He blinked again.
Oh, of course it would have been too easy.
He supposed it made sense. The rows changed. How was he going to find his way out? He blinked once more as he walked, and then stopped.
The exit was there.
So…there was a Genjutsu on this place? He mulled it over for a while, before turning back to the archives.
He began moving towards the Y archives. Yuhi was, after all, his actual surname.
He found the metallic drawer in a corner, opened it and —amidst the gibberish of other less important names— found what he was looking for. His own name and his real surname, with a small clause about him being 'adopted' into Haruno.
He frowned. So there was a general, wide spread Genjutsu area that covered the entire room. Then…then the rat wasn't real.
He grumbled and thought about Naruko, how difficult would it be to access her file? Wasn't he her guardian to begin with?
Once more, he found himself face to face with the rat.
"Now," he began quietly. "We both know you're an illusion," he added. "Can't you act like a fairy and wither and die up if I stop believing in you?"
The rat attacked.
And when its teeth bit down strongly on his arm…the pain felt very real.
He tried to pull the thing away, but when it didn't come off he began to hiss and snarl and whimper. It wasn't real. It wasn't real. He could walk forward, really easy…he just had to ignore the gnawing. It wasn't real.
It hurt like hell.
It hurt. It hurt!
He needed to leave rather than…
A turn, and he was viewing the exit once more. He gasped for air as he walked outside the archive's doors, feeling the weight of the giant rat disappear as the pain slowly receded.
He looked down at his hand.
No wound.
He sighed.
Well, he could always try the next day.
He walked outside, surprised by how much time had passed. His stomach grumbled as he headed off towards Ichiraku. He smiled at Teuchi, who looked at him with a slightly affronted look.
"My favourite backstabbing customer," Teuchi said with a forced smile. "I should let you have a talk with Naruko and Ayame one of these days."
He blinked. "I thought Ayame knew."
"My little Angel? No, of course not," Teuchi retorted sounding proud. "Then you came along." Teuchi grumbled good-naturedly. "So, what will it be?"
"Two miso ramen to take away."
"If you have Naruko back at home, a single one won't be enough."
"Technically she shouldn't be eating Ramen at all," he deadpanned. "But I just know she'd smell the ramen on my breath from a mile away, so I better pacify her with one for herself too."
Teuchi good naturedly laughed, and then added one more on the house. Shinku supposed it hadn't cost anything since it was that late in the night, and the majority of the customers had already come and gone —why Teuchi kept it open way in the middle of the night was beyond him. He supposed it had to do with patrolling Anbu coming by every now and then, or maybe the guard Chuunin at the gates doing a swap?
He walked at a leisurely pace back towards his apartment, opening the door and entering quietly. He didn't know what time it was, but he just hoped Naruko hadn't destroyed the kitchen trying to make dinner.
He found the girl with her face down against the table and her arms crossed in front of her to act as a pillow. Her nose twitched when he dropped the ramen in front of her.
"Nuh…" she moaned. He sighed.
"Naruko?"
"Ramen…" she muttered. She then popped an eye open. "There's ramen on the table," she said softly.
He smiled. "Sorry I'm late, I was held up at work."
It was then that Naruko knew something was wrong with her Aniki.
He was lying. Her mind awoke in less than an instant. What if…what if he had found someone to take her in? No, it couldn't be possible.
"Aniki?" she asked then, looking at him carefully.
"Yes?"
"There's ramen on the table."
"It's because I'm late. One and a half is yours."
She carefully unwrapped it. Two were Miso, but one was Pork —her favourite.
"Neh, Aniki?" she felt a lump down her throat. What if he was about to tell her something horrible, and wanted her to eat something good in the meantime? It happened in many stories, she had read so!
"Yes?" Shinku said once more, grabbing a pair of napkins and the glasses, before turning once more to get the bottle of water.
"Am…Am I…did you find someone?"
"Uh?" he looked back at her perplexed. "Find…someone? In what sense?"
"I mean…in the archives."
"Ah," he exhaled shaking his head. "No."
Naruko's lump disappeared in an instant.
"I'm going to keep on looking though," he added then, sitting down in front of the girl.
"You don't need to," Naruko softly added. "I told you I already checked!" she added, with a bit of heat.
"I know," he blinked. "But did you know there's a Genjutsu in there, that stops you from proceeding if you don't have the right authorization?"
"Really?" Naruko muttered back.
"Really. I'll be going there on another day and with a guide. I'm sure it won't be too difficult after that."
Naruko clenched her fists. "I don't want you to."
Silence stretched in the room for a while.
"You don't want to know your parents' names?"
"They're dead," Naruko softly whispered. "They won't be coming back. I don't need their names. I don't need to have any other family in Konoha but you, Aniki! Please!" there were tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry for the prank, I'm sorry you had to pay for it, I'm sorry but please, please don't give me away!"
"I…" he was flabbergasted. "I didn't mean it that way, Naruko. I thought…I thought you'd like…"
"No," Naruko made an extremely pouting 'no' as her shiny eyes locked on his. "I don't wanna."
"I don't want to," he corrected her mechanically.
"I'll talk in whateva way I decidA ta!"
"That's gibberish," he retorted with a light chuckle.
"No it isn't!"
"Yes, it is."
"No!"
"Yep."
"No-uh!"
"Yes it is," he split his chopsticks. "Eat before it gets cold, worrywart."
"Neh, Aniki…" Naruko muttered, fidgeting with her own ramen. "Why won't you wash my back?"
"You're grown up, Naruko. You can wash yourself alone now," he pointed out.
"B-But!"
"Nope," he shook his head.
"So...if I weren't grown up, you'd wash it?" she asked then carefully.
"I suppose so," he sighed. "But you can't wind back time, can you?" he smiled. He had her—
"Sexy No Jutsu —Ultra Moe Edition!"
And then he blinked as a puff of smoke left the place to a chibi Naruko with bright, bright blue eyes that sparkled, while her cheeks reddened slightly as her tiny lips made a small pout.
"Pretty please, Onii-san, let's take a bath together?"
His heart gave way.
He fell on the ground.
K.O by Moeness.
Author's notes
Went to the Beach twice. Yesterday and today. Both times 'destroyed' me. I am half-vampire, it is now proven true. As a sorry for not having updated, this chapter is 'twice+half' long as normal.