Chapter 2: Your Memory is a Monster… Is It in You, or are You in It?
The ropes tied around me were tight and unforgiving, digging into my skin and scraping them raw. They had turned us away from the trail and backwards towards Kusa; their reasoning for going back to the chaos that was going on there was beyond me.
What was even more perplexing was the fact that after all the trouble they went through to try to pry my baby brother from me, they had allowed me to continue carrying him, though now, he was tied to my back. It made for an uncomfortable position for my tied hands because it forcibly made me hunch over to allow my wrists to be bound securely behind my back under my little brother's thighs, as well as forcing me to kneel- putting weight onto my injured and swelling left leg- in the limited space that was the caravan they regulated all the captives to. They had also kept a certain distance away from me throughout this time. But I hadn't really cared for that when I first woke up again to a world of pain.
They had tied all of us to the caravan, caught the horses again and took all our belongings with them. There were no men left from our group, the women were bruised and unconscious…
And nee-san and the red-haired boy were gone.
I felt like screaming, an unprecedented anger in me roiling and threatening to spill over and rage against the men who took my family members away. But I had to think for my baby brother and the other children still under my care. If I rage and act now, I would be killed and there would be no one left to protect them, powerless as I was now. I couldn't leave them like this. Not like this.
And so I silently held onto what control I had and ate what they shoved my way, begged them to allow me to set my leg properly and for the porridge I made for my baby brother, because he couldn't eat most solids at this point. They had laughed and asked me to grovel before them and kiss their dirty, dusty feet, despite the wariness they looked at me with. But I guess since they saw my compliance, they were going to take advantage of it. I did as they asked and at least they had just the tiniest shred of honor left to actually hand me the porridge.
On the third night being held captive, two of the children fell sick with a high fever and wet cough like nee-san had. My baby brother had also run out of porridge, and with all the high stress he experienced coupled with dehydration, he too began to experience a slight fever. I threw myself at the bandits' feet.
"Please, please, let me take care of the children! They're sick and need food and I know there are wild vegetables I can harvest from the forest around us." The men laughed scornfully but I trudged on. "Please let me just get some, even if it's a little!"
"Are you stupid enough to ask me to trust you not to run away if given the chance?"
"I swear! I won't run away, not without them! Have someone watch me if you want then!"
"Why should I even waste my men's time in watching you pick at weeds?" Another man fired back disdainfully. " If you guys become weak with hunger before we sell you off, then all the better since you won't have the strength to put up a fight!"
I had to think quickly as I was losing the chance to make my case. "If they look scrawny and limp, would people even want them? They couldn't possibly be sold at even the lowest price." Those words slipped out of my mouth like bitter acid, burning my tongue. I didn't want them to be sold, but I was grasping at straw hay at this point. "Besides, with so many people who need food, the provisions in the caravan won't last much longer, and there are enough wild vegetation out there to feed all of us without worry. I am experienced with picking wild plants that are edible. If you let me go pick them and take care of the children, that will be less work on your hands, right?"
The second man who had spoken scrutinized my face as he considered my words. I almost wanted to fidget and flinch under his gaze, but I held still as much as possible.
Finally, he gave an unimpressed snort and waved his hands indifferently as if to shoo me away. "I don't care if you guys starve for a day. We'll be arriving at our fort by tomorrow afternoon anyway. But I'll let you deal with the brats. They look like they're about to throw up all over the place and we're not cleaning that up. Do whatever but you're not going anywhere away from our sight and I'm not wasting my men's time on you picking stupid flowers or whatever."
At least there was a compromise and I wasn't about to let anything change his mind in letting me at least watch over the children.
"Before you're out of your ropes though…." The man smiled, something glinted in his eyes and I shuddered. "Come over here and give me a nice kiss, right here."
He pointed to his lips, and at that moment, it felt worse than kissing his feet. My imagination took over and I saw his lips as smelly and puckered like a dying fish. I shuddered again and he frowned impatiently.
"Well?! I haven't got all night and I can change my mind at anytime!"
I rose to my feet as quickly as I could without the use of my hands for balance and limped over to him, trying with all my might to not grimace before him and draw his ire. I slowly brought my face closer to him, pulling myself together to just give him one measly kiss. For the sake of the children, what was a little peck on the lips?
But he had had enough of waiting. He grabbed my arm and pull me forward roughly, smashing his lips onto mine, his rough hands grabbing my hair painfully. The other men roared with laughter when I struggled, my face red from the humiliation and from not getting enough air. He finally released me after a few seconds, my face and lips feeling gross from the slobber and a split lip when he bit it.
"Cut her ropes and watch her." He ordered one of the men. "If she so much as attempts to escape, cut off her feet. Even if she can't be sold after that, I'm sure boss would want to keep her as a toy. She's innocent and boss loves to break things. I'd want to watch that happen."
I winced when one of the men came and roughly cut the ropes tying my arms behind me. The rush of sudden blood circulation in my arms was smarting and I rubbed them together, thanking them quietly before I left for the caravan. The tears I was trying to hold in broke through the dam of my will as soon as I was on my own and I hiccuped on the sob trying to work its way up my throat.
You need to get it together! Pull yourself together, you idiot! You need to be strong for the children! You'll get through this, you'll get through this! For their sake!
I wiped roughly at my lips against my dirty sleeves to get rid of the vile man's saliva before I craned my neck behind me as much as I could to kiss my whimpering baby brother on the nose.
"It's okay, little brother. I'm not going to let anything happen to you. Never." I whispered fiercely, kissing his nose again. He slowly quieted and patted my cheek as if to seek some reassurance. "I'm going to make sure you get out of this alive and safe… Even if it kills me."
Even if I end up with my feet cut off, even if I have to sell my body. I promised myself, I'd protect you. And I will!
With my renewed resolve, I limped over to the caravan and began to clean and find whatever food was left to quietly slip them to the children. I found stale bread and water hidden in one of the dead man's baggage. I lost all appetite but my brother needed to eat something so after thanking the dead man and apologizing for looting his belongings, I dug out the whites of the bread and soaked them in water to feed the toddler. The husk, I divided into pieces and soaked lightly in water as well and passed it to the other children, who swallowed them hungrily. With a quiet promise to search for more food on our journey tomorrow, I left to sleep on the ground in front of the cart with a thin blanket, hugging my baby brother close to me for shared warmth and with a queasy stomach, the star-lit skies above me my only company.
The next day, we were led to a dilapidated wooden house shaded from view by the surrounding trees and shrubs. They tied the horses to a post on one side of the porch and the caravan to a tree trunk several yards away. They pulled all of us to the front of the porch to kneel in the dirt before a tall muscular man sitting on a bench like it was his throne. They had bound my wrists again, as tight as they were before and this time, they even gagged all of us with dirty torn clothing. The muscular man, who was obviously their boss, leaned forward on his knees with his chin propped on top of entwined fingers as he observed us through narrowed, calculating eyes.
"Make them stand."
The men dragged us onto our feet, nearly pulling my arm out of its joint. The boss finally noticed my baby brother strapped to my back, who was whimpering.
"What's a baby doing here? It's a waste of space. I won't be able to fetch any price for something like that. Get rid of it."
No! I screamed through the gag, trying to shake off anyone who tried to reach behind me to tear the now crying child off my back. But I couldn't really do much with my arms tied tightly to my back and I was barely keeping myself from falling backwards and crushing him. Some of the other women jumped from their position and bodily knocked the men away from me, trying to hold them down with their weight, but we were outnumbered by far. Soon enough, someone unsheathed a sword, slicing cleanly across the back of a woman who was trying to bite the hand holding my face down and take the wailing child off my back. I could distinctly hear her muffled scream of pain along with my brother crying out for me. She dropped to the ground instantly.
My gag somehow came loose and I screamed a plea.
"No! Stop! Please, don't hurt them! I'll do anything! Just- just don't kill him! Please, I'll do anything!"
I was crying, watching helplessly on the floor as they dangled my wailing brother upside down by his foot, ready to slaughter him while blood slowly pooled out from the injured woman's back and collected on the ground. For a brief moment, I caught a glimpse of whisps of something whirling around the leg being held so tightly in his captor's grasp and I shuddered in fear. Then it was gone. What was that?! Were they doing something to him, to make him hurt even more?
"Please!"
"You'll do anything, you say…. What makes you think you are in any position to bargain with me?" The man's laugh was deep and he looked down on me like I was an insect beneath his foot- at his mercy, which I was.
Again, with the question games, but this time, I had nothing for leverage. Nothing to reason with him. Not even forest weed. I said nothing but crawled to him.
"Please, I know-" I swallowed any remaining pride I had left bowed at his feet with my head touching the ground. I didn't care; the injured woman and my brother's life was at stake. "I know I have nothing to bargain with you, but please, I will do anything you want! Anything! Take my life instead, kill me! O-or I'll take care of him, and I swear I'll make sure he won't get in your way! Please! Just spare my brother!"
He roared with laughter, slapping his knees like I had made the funniest joke he'd ever heard.
"This determination you have, groveling at my feet like an animal just to save one little brat. I see. I would love to see that determination break, to see you lose yourself and live like a dog at his master's whim. Will you be willing to break for me then?" He grabbed a fistful of my hair and yanked me to meet his face, his breath sour from alcohol. "I'll let you keep him, then. I'm going to make you my slave, how about that? I'm going to break you at my pleasure till there's nothing left in those eyes of yours and your precious little brother… I'm going to make him grow up watching as I tear you apart slowly."
He chuckled darkly. "Come here tomorrow night. Leave your brother with the other brats."
I trembled with the diminishing adrenaline and shakily thanked him repeatedly as they released my bonds.
My baby brother was going to live. He was going to live. I grabbed my stilling crying brother from the subordinate's grasp and held onto him tightly, smoothing his sweaty dyed hair away from his face.
"It's okay, it's okay, it's okay…" At this point, I wasn't sure whether I was reassuring the child or myself.
"Take the rest of the women and have them cleaned properly. We are going to head for the auction block tomorrow while they still look fresh. Leave."
They pushed us out the door and for the rest of the night, I was put to work along with a few of the less injured women to prepare food and clean. I set aside some of the potato from the soup we made and fed it to my brother as well as made sure everyone from our group was fed. I tended to the sick children and the wounded woman as best as I could, but without proper treatment from a doctor, I despaired.
For the next few days, I watched helplessly as one by one, our group was sold off, the older women quickly sold first, then the children too, were taken. I begged and pleaded for some way I could delay it from happening, first that they were sick and later, that they were too scrawny for much, and so to wait till they filled out a little more…
I was beaten for my disobedience and every night onward, that man would watch as his bastard dogs tortured me: burned me in places, cut into me, spat on my face. Sometimes, I was that close to being defiled but to lord their power over me, they would stop and dangle the idea that at anytime they desired to do so, they could. Every night, I would struggle to wait until I was alone to tend to my wounds before quietly sobbing to myself. The only comfort I had was the little child who held my heart together and prevented it from shattering into pieces, especially when tending to the two sickly children.
Their conditions, like nee-san's, didn't get better but worsened till they were coughing up blood, their lungs wheezing for air; all I could do was soothe them to the best of my ability- hold them- when they cried, feed them and make them as comfortable as possible. And one day, they just didn't open their eyes. I cried in anguish as I quietly buried them behind the caravan that night after it rained. I used a ladle and my hands to dig up the softened soil, deep enough to lay the children on top of each other and pushed the mud back on top. It took every fiber of my being not to immediately dig them back up, fearing that they were still alive and were suffocating to death by my hands. Because I knew in my head they were dead, but my heart ached for them to live.
Not long after, the wounded woman passed as well from a high fever and infection; I buried her next to the children.
Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months, and soon, fall became winter and my baby brother turned three. I still wasn't sure of when exactly he was born, so I considered the day he was handed to me his birthday. He learned to walk and run on his own surprisingly fast and it took a lot out of me to make sure he understood that he was not to run around on his own, for fear of causing the men annoyance and decide to kill him.
Because it was cold and the first bout of snow was about to come soon, I was made to go accompany the men to collect firewood before heading for the house early each morning and start a fire to prepare a breakfast for them. Under that man's watch of course. Whereas his other men had initially kept their distance, their leader had no such reservations with me and soon, the others forgot about whatever caused their wariness around me.
Stepping off the caravan and out of the warm pile of old blankets, I was about to wake my brother up as well to feed him some cold potatoes for breakfast when one of that man's men approached me.
He jerked his head toward the house with a sneer directed towards me. "Boss wants you in there now. Your brother is going to have to wait for his turn."
I eyed him warily before nodding mutely.
Large white puffs of snow was falling as I headed for the front door. The surroundings were quiet save for the occasional hacking sound as the men went to chop more firewood. I found myself thinking wistfully, how I wished I were just like those falling crystals, to be pure and clean from the time it left the sky to when it melted and faded away. A little moment of beauty.
I shook my head. I was me and what I needed wasn't beauty. What I needed was an opportunity to escape and then… to survive with my little brother. It was just the two of us left and if I needed to escape, it would be easier now than before. Thinking about those children and the women, the dead… It still filled me with bitter rage against our captors.
I opened the door and bowed low when I saw that man was already sitting on a chair near the fireplace. There was a new deer skin rug placed in front of the hearth from the last time they successfully hunted a larger animal, deer's head preserved, fixed to a plaque of thick wood and hung at the entrance like a trophy.
"Good morning, Master…" I murmured, even as I wanted to spit in his face with disgust. But whether he saw that or not, he didn't react and continued to watch me intently. Discomfited at his sudden scrutiny of me, I quickly gathered some chopped wood beside the fireplace and began to start the breakfast fire. The quicker I finished, the better.
Something about him unnerved me today and the longer I felt his eyes on my back, the more I wanted to squirm and run as far away from him as I could.
"Come here."
I froze in the middle of lifting the plate of chopped potatoes and deer meat I was going to put into the pot of heating water. "M-master?"
"I said come here, girl."
"H-hai…"
My shaking hands let go of the plate with a clatter and a smirk appeared on his ugly face. I walked hesitantly towards him until I came to a stop a few paces away from him.
"Is there s-something you need?" My heart pounded violently against my ribcage as I saw a flash of something I couldn't comprehend cross his eyes.
In a matter of seconds, he jerked forward, grabbed my arm and yanked me to the floor. I screamed in fear and surprise. He chuckled darkly as his eyes roved over me and I wanted to retch, suddenly knowing what he wanted to do. I began to struggle but he immediately sat on my hips and held my bony wrists in one hand above my head. I had never felt more helpless and vulnerable than at that moment.
"Let go! Let go! What are you doing, you bastard!" I snarled as I thrashed about, trying to get out from under him. He backhanded me hard across the face.
"Ooh, what happened to calling me your master, you whore?" He used his other hand to grab me roughly by the jaw to meet his eyes. "It seems that even with the rough treatment my men gave you, you haven't broken yet. So I'm going to try something with you. I'm going to make sure you slowly fall apart. I want to see the light in your eyes dim until you're nothing but a broken doll. I want to see it!"
"No! Stop! Let go!" Something wavered in the back of my mind as I continued to thrash. Voices. He punched me across the temple and I saw white and black spots blur my vision.
Then- then everything suddenly became blurry.
There was pain… then, shouting.
Voices and red.
Voices.
Shouting.
A blazing fire.
Pain.
Voices.
Pain.
Red.
Red.
Shouting.
Pain.
A voice- "Mama?"
A searing pain, a voice calling, cold, burning and white snow.
Blood?
Then, it was pitch black.
×2×2×2×2×2
In between the voices speaking loudly in the distance, the distinct, repetitive beeping annoyingly next to me and the searing pain the bright lights trying to filter through my clogged eyelashes brought to my eyes and brain, I remembered feeling a panic over something I was now trying to grasp ahold of and yet eluded me, leaving me in an even worse state. It took a moment (perhaps a few seconds, perhaps hours) before the voices became slightly more distinct; some panicked, some… I couldn't keep a single strand of thought together. There was only paralyzing pain and my violently beating heart, which seemed to be mirrored by the background noise.
"...said, that wasn't supposed to happen. Her response to the mind probing should not have been so violent…" A slightly shaken, deep voice of a man floated into my ears.
"What… Inoichi?" Another man's voice filtered through, one that was much more wizened and can only come from a person much older. "… you see?"
The voices cleared as I became more aware of my surroundings, even through the pain that kept me from moving. "… supposed to be able to control the mind probing so that only the memories I chose would be shown to me as images. But for some reason, the jutsu… out of my hands… she was forced to relive it when I opened the memories. That wasn't supposed to happen. She- it's much more than I thought... to have to go through something like that at her age. And that child in her memories is no doubt…"
"I think that's enough for today then. I'm sure she's been through enough. Genma, call a nurse in here to stabilize the girl. Crane, check in with Ibiki and see how the interrogation is progressing. Inoichi-kun, go home and rest. Bring me a full report on what you saw to me by tomorrow morning. Kakashi-kun, would you go see to-"
I finally registered that this Inoichi mentioned a child in the haze and suddenly realized the source of my residue panic. My baby brother! Where was he?! Why couldn't I hear him with me?!
I reached out a shaking hand blindly. I couldn't even tell whether I was moving my left or right one, just the one in less pain. "My… brother!" I rasped weakly, the pain- the aching of my wounds, I'm sure- rendering me boneless and gasping for air. "W-where is he?! Where is he?!"
Someone's leathery hand encompassed my wrist gently to stop my movement, as if that hand's presence would soothe my agitation. But it only reminded me of another person's larger hand: hard, unforgiving, and brutal. I screamed hoarsely in fear.
"No! Let go!" I swatted the hand away desperately despite the jolt of white hot fire searing my arm at the movement and swung it behind me to find purchase to sit myself up. I became aware of another pair of hands holding my shoulders carefully to try to push me back onto the bed and I resisted. "Don't touch me! Let go! Give me my brother back!"
"Get a medic in here now! She's going to reopen her stitches!"
"Give me my brother!" I was a blind sobbing mess by then. I could almost feel my face turning a sickly shade of grey as I cried and expelled my body's much needed oxygen. "D-don't take him away! Don't kill him… please! Let-let us go, letusgoletusgoletusgo…"
I moaned in pain at my weakening body and at the sensation of my side slowly tearing open. A door crashed open and a new voice came in. I felt something enter me through a pin prick in my arm and then, as some of the pain lessened and I was forced to return to that terrifying darkness, a hand smoothed back the hair that had fallen on my face.
"Your brother is fine, he's okay. You're alright. You're going to be alright…"
The next time I woke again, my thoughts were still murky but clearer. And so was my immediate attention to my baby brother's absence in the room.
"My baby brother, where is he?!" I demanded as fiercely as my dry throat would allow, only to wheeze and cough.
"Calm down. We're going to bring him over now that you're up. He's been crying for you for a long time now."
I turned to my left to see a man with shocking white hair hand me a cup of water. I flinched involuntarily at his close proximity. There was a quizzical expression crossing his face and he held his other hand out in a placating manner.
"I'm just going to hand you a cup of water; I'm not going to hurt you." His voice sounded awfully young for someone with such hair coloring. The way he tied the strap of cloth diagonally over his left eye made his weirdly styled hair flop to one side like a patch of dying white grass. Half of his face was covered so the only thing that was visible was his right eye. I watched him warily as I reached with trembling hands for the cup of water, careful not to touch his fingers. In the back of my mind, if I had been the one watching my reaction on the outside, I would have probably looked like a cornered animal. But I couldn't hold onto it and was forced to sip it through a straw while he held the cup near carefully.
I initially took a few tentative sips of water, but I was soon drinking a second cup like desertland soaks up moisture, enjoying the sweetness going down my parched throat and washing away some of the bitter taste in my mouth. I was about done with the glass of water and had returned to eyeing the strange young man suspiciously when the door opened to reveal a man rather short in stature but old, his white robes swishing against the floor, a tall man with his blond hair tied in a ponytail and finally a dark-eyed young boy with his black, sleek hair tied at the nape of his neck. His face seemed older than his actual age.
That person held baby brother, in all his yellow-haired glory, and he was kicking up a fuss, whining and pushing against his bearer to be let down as soon as he saw me.
"Mama! Mama!"
The dark-haired boy approached me and this time, without hesitation, I reached out despite my arms and sides protesting. I plucked my baby brother out of his arms, even as I hissed in pain and wrapped my arms around him tightly, tears rolling down my cheeks as the heavy anxious feelings lifted off my chest at finally seeing him. My baby brother.
I looked at the crown of his head, his blond hair clean, sleek and soft like raw silk.
His dye was washed off. I grabbed a fistful of my own hair and saw that mine had been washed off as well- it was now ink-black.
I hugged his tiny body a little tighter to myself and rubbed his back soothingly, though I kept a wary eye on the other occupants of the room. I stroked the boy's soft hair. "I'm here. I'm here."
"Mama ouch?" He looked up at me with fear in his eyes. "No bad man?"
I kissed his forehead, my heart aching with tender love for him. There wasn't anything I wouldn't do to keep him safe.
"I'm better because you're here."
I turned to the men, unease settling in my chest by how many there were surrounding me. I wanted to hide my brother behind me protectively. "Where is this? Why are we here?"
"No need to fear, child." The elderly man walked slowly to a chair not far from the bed and sat down. I recognized his voice from before as the one giving out orders. "You are in Konohagakure hospital right now and you're safe. Do you know of this place?"
"I-I have heard it from my mistress before…. I was going to travel to a town near this place because there were rumours that Iwa was going to attack the border soon."
"So you lived near the border?"
"Yes… though I'm not sure where that is… I have never really left the Home before and the Ma'am only allowed us to go into town to work for food. The first time she ever took any of the children out of town was when….." My breath hitched a little and the elder immediately dropped the question for another.
"Who is this 'Ma'am?"
"None of us know her name, really… We're generally left to ourselves after we are brought to the Home. We used to have an aunty there but when some of us grew old enough, I guess the Ma'am fired her? She owned the place after all and the aunty no longer came by."
"Why does your brother call you mother when you say he is your brother?"
There was no use lying about the fact that we weren't blood related so I told him the truth. "He was handed to me by the Ma'am when he was a newborn and he just… stuck with it. It's not like he's old enough to know the difference. Why-why am I being asked these questions? Didn't you see enough when you did that mind thing you mentioned before?"
The blond man stepped up and held his hands up in a placating manner. "It's just to make things clearer for us so we can better understand why we found you the way we did…"
Air got caught in my throat as I remembered that man, that bastard who threatened my brother's life, and sold my family while he left the weaker ones for dead. The children and that woman I had to bury...
"Where is that man? Is he..?" I licked my drying lips. "The other men, are they dead? Are they gone?"
The blond looked over to the elder and he nodded.
"Go ahead, Inoichi." The blond, Inoichi, looked distinctly uncomfortable.
"We caught a few of the slave traders for questioning while the others are dead."
"How?"
He gave me a questioning look. " They were apparently killed by Iwa ninja."
"Good."
Now he really scrutinized me and I flinched under his gaze. But a look of understanding came over him and he grimaced. He didn't say anything after that.
"From… the reports I got from Inoichi here, I noticed something peculiar about this Home you lived in… What is your name, child?"
" … Name?"
"Just like this young man here is called Kakashi," the elder pointed to the silver-haired boy-man at my left, then to Inoichi, to the old looking young boy, and then to himself, "he is Inoichi, this young boy is Itachi and my name is Hiruzen. We all have names given to us to help identify who we are. Were the children not given one…?"
"... No. Older children were called nee-san and nii-san by the younger children, just as we call them little brother or sister. The Ma'am is… the Ma'am and most of us older children work as servants. Our… masters and mistresses never needed to know who we were, nor did we need to who they were… They were just… them…" I eyed them carefully. "Is that strange? Is… that wrong?"
The elder, Hiruzen shook his head. "It's not your fault… But if you think about it, wouldn't it be easier to have a name instead of without? It can help you find someone easier, right? It would be less confusing. Would you like to have a name?"
I hesitated. It did sound logical to have one instead of calling everyone aunties, uncles, little brothers, nee-sans and the like. It did often get confusing at the Home. "Okay… But what would I call myself and little brother?"
"Would you be willing to let me name the both of you?"
It wasn't like I could say no if I didn't know how to 'name' myself or baby brother so I nodded. These people seemed like they didn't intend to kill me… I decided to let people who knew this naming business better than I did, do the job.
Hiruzen smiled in satisfaction. "Good. Then rest here for a few more days and after that… hmm, Inoichi here will bring you to my office and get your names. There are things that need to be done to help you with your stay here as well, and some other questions I need to ask you later. In the meantime, why don't I have a nurse bring some food up for you two soon?"
I nodded quickly, my mouth salivating, but I wasn't ready to show that much vulnerability to these strangers yet, knowing their 'names' or not. "Thank you… Hiruzen-san."
The other men had such strange looks on their faces but Hiruzen just waved his hand dismissively with a good-natured chuckle.
"I will see you soon then, children."
The room quickly emptied save for me and little brother, who snuggled up to me. I smiled and eased myself back down onto the bed, still holding him to me, unable to shut my eyes only to wake up and find that this place was a dream. We were in Konohagakure. We were in Konoha….
But Inoichi said many of their captors were killed by Iwa ninja, right? So how did that happen? What had exactly happened before I wound up in this shinobi village…?
"Mama?" My little brother grabbed my new shirt with his little hands, turning my attention to his person. I noticed that his shirt had puppy patterns on it and I smiled in amusement. It looked so cute on him. Could he keep it?
"Yes, little brother?"
"Luf you."
I felt my eyes moisten with tears and cuddled him closer, my cheek to his forehead as I nuzzled my nose in his clean, sweet smelling hair.
"I love you too, baby brother. I love you too."
.
.
"Your memory is a monster; you forget - it doesn't. It simply files things away. It keeps things for you, or hides things from you - and summons them to your recall with a will of its own. You think you have a memory; but it has you!"
- John Irving
A/N: So this is the second chapter! Truthfully, I had a much harder time writing stories in the first person than I thought there would be and churning up a chapter took a lot longer compared to WFSM. Still, I'll continue to try my best in writing! I'm still debating if I want to have the eventual main characters follow canon events or have this veer completely off. Also, there's the challenge of what to write for a character who is a civilian while ninety plus percent of the other characters are ninja…. Ehhhhhh, Updating this story will prove to be a challenge!
Well hope you liked this second chapter installment! Please read and definitely review! That'll definitely get my brain churning with new and better ideas of the details for this story's direction!
Adieu,
Hitori15