Chapter 7: Failed celebrations
The week before October the 10th came about was unusual.
I jumped from the window in my room at the hospital and tried to pull off a three point landing, which left me with a broken right hand. I suspected Anbu had let me, because they wanted to teach me about velocity and the limitations of my very fragile body. After working myself up to the challenge of becoming ambidextrous, I rediscovered my own forgotten regeneration rate, so the lesson was mostly ineffective.
The third day after the accident was the day I teared of the cast and repeated the same action, leading to a dislocated ankle. It proved it was alright to sometimes ignore the definition of insanity, and the repetition of disastrous actions could lead to improvement.
The unusual part was not really the self-caused damage and the following recovery time, but my visitor.
It was a dark and stormy night, or so I would like to say. Another cliché would be to say 'like a thief in the night', but then again, isn't that demeaning when the person in question is a ninja? If calling them murderers is degrading, then thief must be a least be on the no-list. Funny things thoughts, and how they like to wander, when all I really wanted to say, were I woke because my chakra pathways began to work up. It was the first time I noticed my own magic system was able to respond to the presence of others, and I almost missed the sound of the door closing.
The next day I found several books on the table by my bed. Some history, botanic, obscure legends and a single dictionary, none of it really meant for a child.
The lists of possible candidates were short enough for me to immediately pinpoint the gift giver.
What a really weird coincidence that it was my birthday just the same day.
·
"I'm going out for today. Back before it gets dark." I yelled at the nearest team of nurses, while racing toward the exit.
They only scowled lightly in my direction, a single one of them looking at me blankly like she either had not heard rumors of my supposed demonhood or was confused about why I told them. It had become a habit to tell the nearest grown up where I was heading, so the Hokage would stop nagging me about safety and other things like that. Safety should not be a concern with my watchers, and I had tried to point it out without spilling I knew about the fox.
I had not succeeded very well.
My first destination was Kakashi's apartment, where I hopefully would be able to catch him. I was bringing a supply writing tools and paper in a bag, if he was not there or refused to open the door. The last thing seemed to be the biggest obstacle in my plan of getting closer to the copy-nin, as his response to his new honorary status as brother had been to avoid me even more. If that was even possible with the status of our relationship before that. I was not sure if he viewed me as my own annoying little entity or if his guilt still went into overdrive every time he looked at me.
It was slow progress for an awful lot of effort, but I had nothing better to do really.
I fought my way up the stairs in his apartment complex and stayed by his door for about half an hour, where I regularly knocked just in case he was home. When he still remained absent after the time had run out, I sat down on the floor and began writing the thank-you note I had been constructing in my mind since I had laid eyes on his presents.
It was a bit long, and quickly went off track when I got the brilliant idea that being penpals would solve the problem with his guilt overdrive at the mere sight of me.
I may also have suggested he extended his wardrobe in regards to his masks, since it bore the same color of his headband which made them blend horrible. I was no fashionista or that interested in fashion in generally, but the lack of variety was beginning to get boring. I was in the hospital and almost universally disliked, and I seemed to have more clothes than him somehow. Courtesy of the Hokage no doubt.
I finished the letter sized thing and frowned at bit at its content. It was the best I could come up with on short notice, and at least it was not a generic thank-you letter, so I had that. Still most of it sounded pretty awkward, and it reminded me why most of those I knew called me socially inept.
Well, as a person who had never understood loneliness other than as a concept used frequently when humans complained about their lot in life, I could honestly say the implications had never really bothered me beyond the point that I had failed at something.
I dipped a finger in ink and signed the letter-note-something with a smiley made of fingerprints before forcing it into the door's letter slit, wondering about the possibility of getting a bomb or explosive tag inside the apartment through the same thing. I had a hard time understanding why no one in this universe had simply flooded a village with the things and watched the ensuring fireworks. It was a crude method, but it would work in theory. Especially if you involved the storage capabilities of some seals.
For Kami or something's sake, with just a little knowledge about Fūinjutsu and a lot of time and money for ink and paper, you could hypothetical make some pretty powerful bombs.
This world was lucky I was not inclined to fuck it over big time, or a good chunk of the village and surrounding land would be missing.
I got up from the floor and walked out into clear sunshine once again. It was in the middle of autumn, but in spite of that the temperature was still pretty high and the sun was shining from a clear sky. The only real indication of the season was the colored leaves of the trees, which admittedly had always been the reason I had loved this time at year.
They were so pretty!
My focus shifted from the beautiful sight of the dying leaves to my more direct surroundings. I did not possess the necessary instincts to maneuver around in the streets without using my eyes and not be being pushed about by other people. My small size made it possible for me to easily ignore the glares of the muggles, so I was enjoying some sort of benefit from my age.
I was trying not to memorize any faces and writing mental lists of future victims. It was not like they were worth it anyway.
My ears caught the hushed whispers of two women discussing how it would better if I better if I just 'disappeared', while I jumped over the outstretched foot of a man who was quite oblivious in his deliberate attempt of tripping me. Someone was hissing "Demon", and I could feel my eyes twitch as a result.
Damn muggles made it hard to ignore them.
·
I came across an entrance to a rather large bit of land separated from the rest of the village. The little idiotic painted fan on it made it clear who was living there.
The twitchiness of my eyes increased as I walked up to it.
Here was the reason for most of my problems in the coming years, the Uchiha, the proud and arrogant clan with their very own 'Curse of Hatred'. If I had one wish, it was for anyone capable of developing or already carrying the Sharingan to disappear from this universe. Without Tobi and Madara there would be no convoluted plot involving the moon and dooming every human on the planet to die. Without Itachi and Sasuke there would be no fratricide mess, stupid suicide plans and angst.
Best of all, the bitch of a rabbit woman would be stuck in the moon for all eternity. Sure it was ruining the whole plot, but who wanted to deal with all the backstabbing between villains leading to that point?
I messaged my temples and tried to think logically about my options.
The massacre was the first event I would be able to influence which would have drastic consequences, but the question was whether I even wanted to. It was an overblown way to respond to a coup d'état, but I could understand Danzō's motivation to do so to some degree. The Sharingan was seriously dangerous in the hands of the wrong person, but considering what other freaks of nature that was walking around, it really did not warrant killing all the children in order to deal with the rebellious adults of the clan.
Messy, that was the best word to describe the whole situation, and it was giving me a headache.
It was not like I did not have an absurd amount of time to think it through and decide on a course of action, so I decided to move on before anyone got suspicious about the long delay outside the Uchiha compound.
Several drunks had begun to leak into the street, which made it a bit harder to get around without having to resort to violence. Anbu was still leaving me to deal with my own problems, so when one of the drunk's grabbed my collar I had to fight to freedom on my own. I was a tiny bit grateful for the lack of interruptions since it was a perfect opportunity to practice my skill of biting and growling like a savage.
What a gift to be given on your own supposed birthday.
I did not go back.
The option of leaving the streets and walking back to the hospital was unappealing, both because the list of activities I could do there were quite limited, even with my new books, and because it would mean the muggles were winning. I would not give them the satisfaction of that. If I wanted to be outside I would stay outside and do whatever I wanted. Even if I had to bite a hundred people before they grasped it, I would do so and developed a taste for their blood in the progress.
I was no emotional fragile child. Those glares of theirs would not affect me any more than the buzzing sound of annoying mosquitoes.
With renewed determination I continued walking the streets, simply to show my spite of the common people and their superstitions.
·
Hours, it had been hours, and my stubbornness was beginning to decline again to a manageable level.
The date was bothering me more than I liked. For this world it represented a day of tragedy, but for me it was simply another lie, something else I had to remember in every conversation in order not the break the masquerade.
It was getting tiresome to pretend, and even more so to stop myself from taking my temper out on the nearby glaring muggles.
Feeling a bit depressed I left the streets and began wandering aimless into the forest. Since it was the day it was, I was guaranteed to have somebody watching over me if I ran into something. It did not guarantee they would help me, but I at least had somebody to bring the body back.
I was practically oozing positiveness.
When I came across a river I decided to follow it, since it would be harder to get lost with a big stream of water by your side as guide. It was quite peacefully really. Lot of quiet time, if you discounted the bird song and rustling of dying leaves. Mountains were visible in the distance and everything, so all it really needed was some pretty flowers and it was good to go.
It would have made for quite an attraction somewhere in my home world.
I stopped when I came across three poles, my feet seemly stuck to the ground.
Slowly I turned to the right with increasing dizziness; my breath coming out in small huffs like I had ran a marathon. It almost seemed impossible, theoretical having the same chance to happen as the whole lotto winning thing, but I had still done it. My gaze zoomed in on a lone figure, standing with his back to me and staring down on a tombstone like monument.
I had found the Memorial Stone.
My gaze shifted back to the single man standing by the monument. One I knew would keep standing there years for now, never forgetting those who had left him behind in the world of the living in order to go the afterlife. He was mourning, mourning a dead teacher and teammates.
One which did not deserve so.
I clenched my fists, air hissing out through my teeth. This was a moment of privacy. I was not supposed to spoil the peace here. He was allowed to mourn the memory of the friend he had lost, even if the same friend ran around like a puppet on strings and planned the end of this world.
I started walking, faintly aware of shaking while I neared the stone honoring the dead.
Kakashi did not look up.
The silence was unbroken. I joined him in staring at the names of people long gone by. It was being respectful, it was what I had always lived by; trying to be the best possible person at the given time and place. I had never successfully lived up to that ideology, I had not even truly tried while living here. It had been like one long respite from reality and the stress of never-ending exams and trying to live up to the expectations of others.
I sat down on the ground and curled up.
It was as good a place as any to wait for the day to end.
Author's note: Some days it's not worth getting out of bed. She wants to have fun, but her plans are rarely that successful as have been demonstrated before. Introspection is not that funny to write or read, but her age is still pretty limiting and a sudden time skip would mean a lot of development cut short.