As of this chapter, the ship is undecided.
Hey. It's been a while. I got a new phone screen a while ago but this chapter, the end especially, was a troubled one because…
Outlines. Today's writing corner subject. Check it out at the end of the chapter
To said chapter.
Persea always hated Gabe Ugliano. Ever since she'd met him she always had the want to gut him.
She never understood why her mother married the guy over literally anyone else. Like her supposedly amazing father, for example. But no. He'd gone and gotten himself lost on sea. Personally, she would never allow that to happen to her.
She hated the fights even more. The fights that were so frequent. Especially after she started going to Naruto's. Her mother stepped back on a lot of things. But one of the things that she wouldn't step back on was that.
"Why do you stand him?" she asked her mother one evening as they sat in her bedroom, talking as her mother washed her hair.
Her mother sighed, exasperatedly. The sigh if someone who was tired of a conversation she'd had too many times. "I just do," she rehearsed. Persea frowned.
"But he's mean!" She insisted, "and he's always yelling at us."
Her mother sighed and ran her hair through her locks. Persea saw her mouth open to form the words she would usually say in response but froze a second before she said it.
She watched with bated breath and hope as her mother seemed to ponder something.
After a brief amount of consideration her mother deflated, running her hand down her face. "Learn from other's mistakes," she whispered. She turned to her and pressed a kiss to her forehead.
"I can't tell you everything." She put her hand up in a stop sign and Persea shut down the complaint coming out of her mouth. "but-" She took a deep breath and looked at the ceiling, "Gabe keeps you safe."
The breath was forced out of her lungs in a surprise exhalation of air. She said nothing and looked to her mother for explanation.
"I can't explain how but he just does. If he were to go then bad things could happen and some bad people could come after you."
Persea looked back down. Gabe was... helping her?
That was the biggest load a bullshit she had heard.
Persea looked to her mother. Her tongue primed to tell her what she thought of her lies but at her mother's braced look she paused.
She looked scared.
Not scared as in intimidated of her but by her reaction.
Naruto and his mother had danced this dance a few days prior and her mother clearly expected a similar reaction. She'd chanted 'learn from other's mistakes' before telling her and Persea finally got it.
She took a lighter approach and rationalized that this was a weird for her mother to lie about so gave her the benefit of doubt.
"So these guys.. the ones Smelly Gabe are protecting me from… they're really strong?"
Her mother looked up from the ground, bracing expression gone and replaced with confusion. "Uh yeah?" she asked, looking at her weirdly.
"I'll just have to get stronger than them then we won't need Gabe!" she said, pumping her arms into the air.
Her mother's mouth opened and her eyes widened. Persea smiled as the stiffness that was present in her shoulders disappeared and a bright smile was unleashed from her face.
She was enveloped in a bone crushing hug after that she wasn't expecting but wasn't complaining.
She looked out past her mother and out of the window of her bedroom. Crows cawed in the distance and the sun went behind a cloud.
She had one other thing she was going to do when she was strong enough.
She was going to kill Gabe Ugliano.
Slowly and painfully.
Her fingers went numb as her feet felt cold. Her nerves burned and her head screamed.
She cursed that her dream wouldn't be accomplished as the resounding crack of her forehead splatting against oak wood.
Her dream was dead only a day after declaring it. She was going to die one day after getting closure.
How fucking poetic.
Sally opened the door. A bag of pizza boxes tucked under her arm. She smiled at the memories of Poseidon brought up in the conversation.
"I tell you, Sally. You should write a book about it! It would sell like crazy!" Hare echoed again. Sally shook her head at the surreality of the situation. Hare was with her flaws but she was easily the most human of the Greek Pantheon gods she'd met.(Granted she'd only met like three now)
There was no sound from upstairs. She raised an eyebrow. She shared a look with Hare.
"Persea," she called.
Nothing.
Her expression turned worried. Hare next to her stiffened. There was a shift up the stairs. Fear briefly gripped her heart before she realized she was standing by a godly being. She approached and hit the lights.
The room exploded into brightness.
Her eyes widened at the sight. Her child. Her precious child laid discarded by the stairs. Head bleeding profusely and arms crumpled next to her
Familiar green mist seeped out of the area. She swore loudly and approached her child.
She knelt in front of her. She looked around for the person she'd left her daughter with. Maybe he had been hurt further. She didn't find him in her sweep.
She pushed her worries for the other child and focused on her own, pressing her fingers to her neck.
She swore again as she did so. She would not allow it. She would march down to Hades if needed. She would not allow her child to die.
The universe was not a kind mistress.
Her heart stopped. This wasn't happening . This was not happening.
She took a step back. Her feet nearly buckled into themselves. She covered her mouth to stop the scream that was tearing through it.
She took a shuddering breath. Poseidon had told her. He'd warned her. That Persea could die at any moment. That she should savor every moment. That it could be her last with her daughter.
But faced with it now; she had not savored each moment enough.
Hare hissed next to her. "Witch needs to get her children under control."
She paused. The implications of her words momentarily stopping her grieving. Hare seemed to realise as well by the widening of her eyes.
"Oh- I didn't mean it like that, Sally. I was talking-"
She turned. White. Hot. Rage pulsed through her, pushing away all other feelings momentarily. Her voice was low and dangerously thick with malice. "Maybe you need to get your child under control."
Hare's eyes flashed and her form flickered to a more imposing version of herself, a version that could and would incinerate Sally if Hare was to turn into it fully. As kind as Hare was; she was still a deity. A mighty being who could make her a grease spot on the wall without a shred of effort.
Sally didn't give a fuck.
She rose to her feet, looking at the deity in the eye as she did. She was on a stair above Hare so could look down on her.
Hare's form flickered more.
Her hand twitched for a weapon that wasn't there.
Hare moved and she braced for incineration but it didn't come.
Hare didn't attack and instead passed her and crouched to her daughter's corpse.
Sally watched the interaction cautiously. Beings like her did not respond well to such disrespect and did not just 'calm down'. "Sorry," Hare whispered. For the unintended insult or Persea's condition, she did not know.
Sally looked away from her and crouched by her now deceased child. Her eyes filled again with tears and her nose dropped with mucus. She didn't care.
She had lost everything— what was a bit of snot.
At some point Naruto had accepted it. He had forced himself to not think but he couldn't escape the thoughts forever.
He'd killed her. He'd brutally murdered his friend, a child, by throwing her down the stairs when she was probably running to him to celebrate her, completely fair, win. His stomach churned and his throat clogged up with mucus.
He pressed his foot to the ground and pushed himself even farther away from his home, from his mother and Persea's corpse.
Each breath felt like molten lava rolling down his chest and each thought made his head hurt more. The tears trailing down his face probably didn't help. He had to wonder what people were thinking when they saw a four year old running non-stop with tears in his eyes but no one tried stopping him.
His running was interrupted when his foot didn't connect to the ground. The feeling of weightlessness enveloped him like a hug, removing all thoughts for a moment.
A smile spread across his lips. His memories, ideas and worries faded for a moment. The wind blew on his face and the pain present in his body disappeared.
He took a deep breath.
His leg landed on the ground.
Black hair, green eyes and a bright smile that could illuminate the world.
Black hair, red pinwheel eyes and a scowl that screamed edgy.
Pain.
His body crumpled with a crack by his knee and he was forced to the ground.
His mother.
His village.
His mouth opened for a silent scream. His knee pulsed with vibrations like a drum was being played in it.
He looked back to see what could have happened. There was a sudden depression in the road where his leg would have landed and so his leg had straightened.
He turned his body around, ignoring how his knee throbbed at the action. He looked to the cloudy sky like he used to back when he was actually four years old and would curse his lack of parentage.
Naruto found himself cursing about that again.
He wanted a mother's embrace to push away the cold, the fear but if he went back he knew he would find no mother there.
He pushed those thoughts away and focused on looking at the clouds.
Just focus on the clouds. Nothing else.
His tears persisted. A few strangers kindly offered assistance but he didn't respond and focused on the clouds.
He heard someone call the police but he didn't care. He would escape whatever would come for him anyway.
He looked at the clouds obscuring the sun, a set of tears already replacing the last ones.
He'd killed her.
Pancakes.
That was the first thing he registered. The smell of freshly fried pancakes and coffee being boiled somewhere close.
He turned to the side, cursing out the probably happy family that was definitely making good food to spite him.
His stomach grumbled. He shut his eyes tighter but didn't instantly fade to sleep like he had hoped he would.
He groaned, deciding to leave the area and escape the amazing scent.
He opened his eyes slowly, registering the room around him. He pressed his hand on the mattress under him and pushed himself to the crown of the small bed he'd woken up from, his head throbbing with every movement.
A thick pungent of dust filled his nostrils. His throat dried up and his tongue filled with the gravelly taste of dirt.
He inspected the room. Compared to the depressing grey of the alley walls—the wooden floors and walls were refreshing even if they were covered in dust.
What?
Oh, you were expecting him to panic after a few seconds of his brain not processing the situation. He may be dumb at times but he had Shinobi training. He was expected to react to new information each and every second or he would be killed. Compared to someone pulling out a fireball or summoning giant frogs—being kidnapped was nothing.
He quickly and quietly moved out of the room. Only then noticing the utter lack of decorations adorning it.
He didn't dally on thoughts of the room and immediately inspected the new one. He cursed in his throat. He should have looked before he had gotten out. He trusted his senses enough that he wouldn't expect a person to be in the room that he'd entered but even he couldn't tell the layout of a room just by smelling it.
It was open. A main living room area that held all the doors to the other rooms and especially to note; the entrance to the kitchen.
Calling it an entrance wasn't exactly right actually. It was even more open than the living room with no door and the only walls to speak of being a collection of wooden planks built to form a rectangular box to slide food through and to the table that made the dining.
He heard the quiet chatter and the sizzle of oil frying the briefly forgotten heavenly smelling pancakes.
They were two people by the cooker. Both were young— preteens— but beneath the facàde of age was an energy of confidence and strength.
His eyes naturally looked to the one radiating more strength. She was the younger one of the two with sharp, coal black hair and a punk rock jacket that was a size too big on her. She looked small in it, non threatening. Naruto wouldn't be surprised if that was intentional.
The other was blonde with the only unusual detail he could see from here was a slight point to his ears and a pale complexion. His strength was plenty, Naruto imagined, but it was almost completely imperceptible compared to the girl.
He cursed in his throat, not stupid enough to make a noise. These two were stronger than him. That was just a pill he had to swallow.
The only comfort he could provide laid in the fact that they weren't as strong as his mother. Though after following that train of thought, he'd lost any positivity he'd gained.
He approached by the side, trying to flatten himself by the walls to be more undetectable.
If he had more access to chakra, he thought bitterly, than he would be scaling the walls and making sneaky ninja leaps.
He slowly inched his way forward, each step bringing him closer to the powerhouses.
He was a few steps from the kitchen when he started formulating a plan. He'd tossed out his original idea of just beating them up once he'd seen their age and especially once he'd felt their power.
He approached now with the intent of information. He would know where he was and who they were atleast.
Naruto was viciously pulled out of his thoughts when his feet slid on where they were supposed to land and pulled him under.
His instincts kicked in. He twisted and his arms raised to stop the impact hitting his head. But that didn't stop the resounding stomp that was him landing.
The world quietened. The sizzle of the oil desisted and the previously not registered sound of the stove dulled out.
Naruto took a moment to regain his bearings. The thumps of someone approaching, probably the two making pancakes, faintly registered.
He groaned, rubbing his arms to try and dampen the pain.
He froze. His enhanced senses alerting him of their presence. He looked up.
The girl looked down on him. Her eyes were a shocking blue—like a lightning bolt was festering under them waiting until it could strike down on him.
He quickly got up though he kept his eyes trained on the girl, bracing for any movements. He smiled nervously. "Hi there. Is this your home? I was just passing by. Can you point me to the nearest exit?"
The girl broke her frown to a slight smile. Naruto took a breath of relief. Maybe his jokes could get him out of this mess. The girl kneeled down, reaching his level.
"Thalia," she introduced, raising her hand for a handshake. Naruto looked down at her hands for a second before grabbing them. She smiled.
"Naruto."
He noticed how Thalia didn't introduce herself with her last name, and by her slightly narrowed eyes, she noticed the lack of his own last name in his introduction.
"That's Luke," she said instead. A jolly 'hello' came from the kitchen but assuming it was rhetoric, Naruto didn't answer.
"You were asleep for a while. We were getting worried." Thalia informed, inserting a layer of concern over her features.
The tension that had desisted in his shoulders briefly sprung up again. "How long was I out?"
"A few hours but me and Luke are mother hens. Can't help but be nervous over the littlest things especially for the littlest people."
Naruto furrowed his eyebrows and frowned. "Little?" He asked justifiably offended, "I'm not little."
Thalia raised her hands placatingly but still asked: "How old are you, then?"
The words almost slipped out of his tongue instinctually but he caught himself. This was her way of getting information and he was not going to fall for it. "Lead by example."
Thalia looked at him. "Looks like to me your just avoiding it."
"No. I'm just being courteous. Ladies first."
Thalia pursed her lips. "Your story.. uh.. seems to be shifting. Dontcha think?"
The humerous moment was broken. Naruto took a deep breath, taking a step back.
He had said that.
He'd told Persea that.
He could remember it in HD quality. He'd kicked out her leg, forcing her to do a split. She'd given excuses on why she wasn't getting up and then he said that.
He snorted. "Your story.. uh.. seems to be shifting. Dontcha think?"
Naruto flicked his tooth with his tongue, an attempt to focus on something else— an attempt that failed.
He'd replayed that day so many times he could tell you the amount of times he'd blinked, he could recollect each and every movement she'd made, the amount of smiles she had graced him with.
Naruto gulped and forced down the thoughts.
He looked back to Thalia. Lacking any fight, he responded to her question. "Six,"
The words slipped out of his tongue weirdly. It had been a while since he'd spoken his age that he couldn't really grasp it.
It had been two, almost three years. It had been almost three years since he'd murdered her. He wondered where all the time went.
"I'm eleven, almost twelve but that's like six months from now so I don't know if that really counts." Thalia rambled but Naruto didn't pay much attention to her.
He looked out at the clouds, noticing the wooden plate hanging next to the window but didn't pay it any mind and instead focused on the puffy clouds. Thalia, not knowing what to do, awkwardly went back to Luke in the kitchen.
He grimaced at the condensed water vapor. Thinking how similar what he was doing was to what Shikamaru would do all the time though that thought gave him no comfort.
He looked away from the clouds and hence the thoughts of Shikamaru and back at the wooden plate. It held a name, presumably of people who lived here before.
He forced the thoughts of Persea and Shikamaru out with wild speculations of what happened to the family and if this place was abandoned than why they would leave a functioning gas cooker with gas. He was presuming that Luke and Thalia hadn't bought it but from their outfit state; didn't seem likely.
Naruto found that he quite enjoyed the name of the family. It was unique and he had to admit that DiAngelo had a nice ring to it.
I mean the reveal is not really a big deal but the world is small and I like the idea that Nico has a cabin in the middle of the woods that he occasionally goes to for pictures of him, Bianca a his mom. Thalia and Luke having a safe house that belongs to them is just neat and brings chaos I might or might not use. . So this chapter was really rough in development with so much time spent on this last part that I felt like I've written three chapters with just the end and that's because of outlines.
Writing advice corner Outlines are really important. They help you structure your story and foreshadow certain events (something I am way too obvious about but somehow no one seems to have caught or called me out on them.) Basically they are great. They are necessary, I think.
Problem is; I hate them.
Ok not generally but I really hate when everything is planned in one afternoon and can end up ruining writing a fic for me, even if I enjoyed the concept. So what I do is I do it little by little. I'll let ideas flow into me, elaborate on them and fit them into my story. So I have a general plot of TLT but not so much for SoM but I have a lot for TLO. It's a nice balance for me. That doesn't mean that will work for for you. You just got to test the waters and see if you prefer the extremes or a nice middle ground like I do.
Where was this a problem in this chapter? The chapter itself. It wasn't supposed to happen.
I'll get into improvisation another week, probably next one, both pros and cons but for now I'll focus on the negatives when it comes to outlines.
Last chapter was supposed to end with Persea leading Naruto through a panic attack after he thinks she's dead then we'd get a time skip this chapter. Then I thought. Wait. What if she actually was dead and here we are. This fucks up a possible chapter I had planned and it forces me to write off my ass. Which meant the revisions in this chapter were plenty. The first part stayed the same but everything after the Sally bit was being exchanged around like it was Pokemon cards. I won't go into details in attempt to keep this end note shorter than the actual chapter but yeah, it was difficult. So apologies if the end reveal does not match up to the quality of the rest of the chapter. I was also just trying to get the chapter out so it isn't the most polished. There was a similar situation last time with the end so I might need to improve on finishing my chapters.
Improvisation isn't bad though. I'll touch on that next week.
Also if you want better, more professional information, check out YouTube. People like Hello Future Me, Closer Look and Overly Sarcastic Productions with their trope talks episodes(credit to the guy who suggested these guys. Love em') are life savers with info that helps me improve each chapter
Thanks for reading. Sorry for the long note. Enjoy your day!
WE'RE BACK, BABY!