Chapter 12: Home
'Inner thoughts'
Shakko
Writing/Tsukiyomi
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Tsukiyomi's POV
The moment the girl was brought back into the village and into her tiny home she collapsed and passed out the moment she laid down on her bed.
Sitting by the small clay chimney the woman took off the girl's cloak and folded it and she placed it on the shelf within the tree that was by her bed. Placing one of the blankets on the girl she sat back by the chimney watching the girl sleep.
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As midnight approached the figure of the woman watching the child began to change slowly. Her long black hair became shorter and began to whiten, her curvy build became leaner and muscular, and her pearly eyes became dark and bright as an onyx's.
The only things that remained the same were the long lashes, the beauty marks underneath each eye, and the same gown that its counterpart was wearing.
In both forms the being was beautiful and breathtaking, shaking their luminescent white hair the being sighed and laid down looking at the roof of the tree.
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Flashback - weeks ago
The project was doing wonderfully she was capable of following the shinobi without attracting much attention. However, it would be difficult to predict what exactly what actions this person will make or what actions she will make with his presence around.
This person may hinder her development.
Luckily the shinobi chose to stop just before he exited her reach.
Once night fell she appeared before the sleeping figure, reaching towards him she touched the shinobi's arm. A transparent liquid soaked into the sleeping figure's skin, flinching the person woke up noticing the strange woman before him. Before he could react the woman had placed her other hand to their head, their eyes rolled back as they fell asleep once again.
He would not remember what had happened, just like the fox, and would realize something was wrong until it was too late. The more he moved the more the poison would spread, and after that, the poison would disappear from their system leaving no trace of foul play.
There was no danger in eliminating someone whose life would have barely left an impact on the flow of things. Disappearing back into the forest she would wait for the results and send someone to help.
Flashback end
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Shifting from the corner of his eye snapped the person out of their memory, looking at the bed they saw that the girl had woken up. Half asleep the child looked at the figure before realizing something was different and gasped pressing themselves against the tree.
Amused the figure smiled while sitting up, "It's me Tsukiyomi."
The child furrowed their brows in an adorable manner and inched closer to the male. The child's eyes scanned their face and something clicked in the child's mind as she nodded in understanding, the reason behind the woman'sーnow manーdisappearance for almost half a month, now made sense to her.
Deep in thought, the little girl didn't notice as the tip of her braid started to turn white and fall off, creating small piles of snow where she sat down, "Now that you are awake, I need to take you somewhere." the man said making sure to sound calm and collected. She/he had waited years for a chance to carry out his experiment and was unsure as to when the next chance to recreate it was going to pop up, "Meet me outside, you won't need to take anything with you."
The girl nodded, before tensing up. "I-I need to give the scroll." She stuttered diving for the satchel and digging through it.
"Go, but make sure no one sees you."
Elated the girl grabbed the two scrolls she pulled out of her satchel and held onto them tightly in her hands as crawled out the tree making her way back to the Uchiha compound.
From afar the man watched the little girl run through the forest with such agility and familiarity of the area, before stopping when she reached the edge of the forest. Feeling the air surrounding the girl he felt her masking her presence before continuing into the compound. The child's development had increased in such a short time. He almost felt like tearing up, another step towards his goal.
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Watching the girl make her way into the Uchiha house, he watched in surprise as the little child jumped over the wall and land on the other side without falling face first. 'Travelling on the sand must have improved her balance.' He mused watching the girl make her way into one of the many rooms.
Opening the door just big enough for her to go through she entered leaving the door open, a minute passed before the girl came back out closing the door behind her.
Something bothered the man, a feeling he couldn't shake off. She was being watched. Scanning the area immediately for anyone who might've been watching the man shook his head confused. No one was near enough to watch her, yet why couldn't he shake away the feeling.
Turning his attention back to the little girl he saw her tense up like him before she bolted back to the direction of the forest.
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Waiting back at the girl's tree home, he waited outside to see the girl running to him out of breath.
"Is something wrong?" The man asked pretending not to know.
"Yes… no." The girl gasped out, after a while, the girl calmed down "I-I think someone saw me." She stuttered out guilty, remembering his words before she left towards the compound.
"Did you see them?" He asked, the girl shook her head in response and in doing so more snow fell, "We can focus on that later but for now we need to go back out."
Following the Nakano river, they made their way out of the village and back out to the forest.
After a while of walking the man stopped and looked towards a part of the ravine ahead. On the slightly hidden cliff, he could sense one signature, it was strong but had a young aura to it, possibly a kid or a teen. The cliff was in the direction of their destination so without a choice the man kept walking 'The sooner we get there the better,' he thought.
Glancing back every so often to make sure that girl was following him. He checked on the signature to make sure they hadn't moved, unfortunately for him they did and it was headed back to the village.
The little girl sensed the something and peaked from behind him in the direction in which it was coming from. Her eyes widened then looked relieved.
"I think I saw someone," The girl said quietly pointing to the trees, "but a the same time I saw nothing." She added, the man could hear the truth in her voice.
'Teleportation' he thought, he knew something was up, the person who she saw obviously didn't want to be caught outside like them.
Land of fire - Near Konohagakure
Standing before an old and crumbling shrine he looked at it sadly, thinking back to a time when the shrine was still up and standing proudly in the forest.
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Flashback
Priests and priestess walked around the shrine doing their daily duties or chores.
This shrine served as a place for those injured to be healed, but their main duty was to protect the mask within the shrine and the secrets it contained. Only those working there and those on the island knew this fact. Why was a mask containing a deadly technique outside of the village instead of inside it? Well if it was then it would be obvious. After all who would expect such a technique so out in the open?
Within the shrine, the head priestess clasped her hands together and closed her eyes, "Tsukiyomi, please give us your protection in these times." The woman stayed like that, the fear of the war ravaging the lands near was terrifying for her. The memories so fresh in her head, the injuries she had witnessed in such a short time, "I hope it ends soon." She whispered to no one in particular.
That. Was decades ago.
Flashback end
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"What it this place?" He heard the little girl whisper in awe.
"An old shrine," he replied wishing he could have done more, glancing back at the girl he noticed that the white had spread to the girl's hair tie. Without hesitation, he began climbing up the stairs towards the shrine.
Upon entering he heard the girl barely whisper something, "It looks like you." He saw the girl point to the masks lining the wall. "When you have your horns." She added motioning to her own head.
Pointing to some of the broken floorboards he motioned for her to avoid, he replied "It is me." he said glancing at the masks, "I only have my horns the closer the full moon approaches." He added before the little girl could ask more.
Reaching the wall with the masks he climbed the stairs towards the left side of the platform and bent down pulling on a floorboard to reveal a box inside.
Peering over the male's shoulder the little girl watched how the man gingerly pulled out the wooden box. Setting it in front of her he took the lid off and placed it aside, inside were two silver rings at the top with engravings on the inside along with other small trinkets and jewelry.
"Here put these on your ankles," he said reaching into the box and handing over the two rings, before leaving to another part of the shrine.
Sitting at the bottom step the girl took one and slipped her foot through it after doing this she went for the other and did the same. Once both rings were on, they changed form to fit her, the rings were still loose but not enough for it to fall off.
Coming back with a scissor in hand he glanced at the girl's hair noticing how the white had stopped spreading. "Now if you will allow me," he said snapping the scissors.
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The girl patted her new hairstyle and shook her head laughing at the new feeling. "It's so light!" She giggled.
He had cut the bangs so it wouldn't block her sight as before and cut her hair to the point where it reached her shoulders. Noticing the white strands on the floor he brushed them into a nearby hole when the girl wasn't looking.
"Listen," he said cutting through the laughter, the girl turned to him interested, "Make sure to always wear those rings," he added by taking the hair tie and placing it on her wrist.
The girl nodded her hair bouncing in the process. Stopping as if remembering something she was in thought trying to put her words together. "I need to tell Yashamaru-san that I'm ok."
He knew she was going to say that so he took out some paper, and an ink bottle he found as well as a brush and handed them to her. "You should write it."
"Thank you." The girl smiled and took the items eagerly.
Yukino's POV
Finding an area where the floor wasn't falling apart. I sat down near the entrance, dipping the brush in the ink I bent over the paper and began writing in a language people nowadays would be able to read.
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Yashamaru-san I'm home. I reelly enjoyd my time in Suna.
Please tell Temari that I like the braid she did and the kunai,
I will tresure it forever and tell Gaara that I'll keep my promise.
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The girl closed her eyes thinking back to how some of the words were spelled from a book she read, the man near her just smiled amused and helped her a little bit.
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I'll visit soon, please tell Michiko-san thanx for the cloak and satchel.
I hope they find Shijima-sama soon.
Yukino.
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Reaching the end of the page I let it dry for a bit before handing it to the man sitting beside me.
Tsukiyomi's POV
The letter was short but took up most of the page, folding it into fours I rolled it up. Reaching for the brush I wrote clearly the name of the person mentioned at the very beginning of the letter and headed out of the shrine, the little girl following behind.
Whistling into the quiet night air I waited, a shrill close by answered. Stretching out my arm a hawk came and landed, its beautiful brown wings stretched out revealing white markings underneath. 'You poor creature, are you still waiting for your master to return?'
Tying the little messenger bag to its back along with the note the hawk flapped its wings. "Go west to the village hidden in the sand." I ordered, scratching the hawk's head, "make sure to deliver it to a man named Yashamaru."
"Hawk," the girl whispered pointing to its beak.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out a cricket for it to eat. The hawk eagerly took the offering and flew away.
"It is. Let's head back."
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Glancing back every once in a while I could see the girl nodding to herself. 'She is probably speaking to the fox.' I concluded.
The girl smiled and walked with a hop the whole way back to the village. He dismissed this as a weird habit she might have picked up from the people at the sand, at least that's what he thought. The people of the sand don't act in such a manner.
Focusing on the girl's chakra he delved into her mind to figure out what was the cause of her behavior.
°A family doesn't have to be blood… so… does that make Tsukiyomi my parent? Oh really...°
Cutting the connection the man frowned at no one in particular. This is not how he wanted things to go, sighing inwardly the rubbed out the wrinkles forming above his brows, 'To erase that idea it must be replaced with another.'
Sunagakure Aviary
It was noon when he had been called to the Aviary. Those tending to the hawks eyed the mysterious bird preening itself, refusing to leave.
"Yashamaru-san," one of the falconers called him over showing him the letter on the table. "This letter has your name on it." the falconer glanced between the letter on the table and back at the young man questioningly, "We have informed the Kazekage about this and we were asked to be careful."
Walking up to the table he grabbed the letter and opened it, inside he was met with messy writing taking up most of the page, recognizing it as a child's writing style. With a faint smile, he read it.
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The shrine is the same one that appeared in the manga.
