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Thank you for reading and please enjoy
Reality Viewing: Naruto the Charming Assassin Charmer
-Chapter 14-
The bedroom was unusually silent as everyone contemplated what they'd seen, heard, learned, ect. In the last video. Mea and Yami were both looking uncharacteristically unnerved and even a bit terrified, Mikan had sidled up close to the former as she shivered slightly, Lala looked scared and sad at the same time as she hugged a pale-faced Rito and snuggled up to her mother's side, and the twins huddled onto the oldest pinkette's lap with uneasy expressions.
Meanwhile, Sephie herself actually looked surprisingly calm, and in fact appeared to be contemplating something quite deeply while idly rubbing each of her younger daughters' heads in a comforting manner.
And that was how they all remained until the screen finished its current cooldown period and the video started playing again.
"Naruto-niichan, I thought you were going to be coming alone!"
"Aw, he sounds just like a jealous little brother when he finds out his big bro is busy with his girlfriend." Momo said with a light giggle, one that her siblings and mother gradually shared as the mood in the room lightened up just a little tiny bit.
"Calm down Konohamaru, it's just Yami-chan. Yami-chan, this is Konohamaru. There, now you know each other." Naruto introduced Yami to his student/young rival Konohamaru. The younger boy, only 12 years old, was looking at Naruto with a conflicted face. Since usually their training was supposed to be done in secret, and bringing a girl along would ruin the moment for him.
"Probably because said girl would promptly beat the ever-living hell out of them both once she saw what they were training in." Mikan stated blandly, earning a few laughs and/or nods of agreement from the everyone else, especially Yami who held up a hair fist for added emphasis.
"Anyway, I thought this was about that." Naruto mentioned with a wave of his hand.
They were behind the Hokage Rock, currently in front of a very old shed that was used by previous Hokage, and relatives of the Hokage, to store things that weren't of dire importance. Things like alarm clocks, birthday presents, or other things that didn't really warrant being held in top security or the Hokage office.
"Huh, so a sort of unimportant-important hideaway, not a bad idea," Sephie muttered while rubbing her chin thoughtfully, before a tiny smirk popped up on her lips as she glanced at her daughters. "If only I'd thought of something like that when you three were little, then I wouldn't have to worry about you snooping around my bedroom every year looking for presents."
At this, all three girls blushed in embarrassment, with Lala chuckling sheepishly while Nana tried to hide herself in her shirt and Momo grumbled.
"Not like it did us any good, not even Lala's hidey-hidey-finder-kun invention we had her make could find where you hid them," The busty twin said while crossing her arms, her face scrunching up in disgust as she spoke. "Though it did find stuff I really wish it-MMPH!"
"We agreed never to speak of that ever again." Nana muttered sternly, her face gaining a slightly green tint to it at 'that' memory.
Rolling her eyes, Momo made a weird waving motion with one hand while tapping the side of her head with the other. "Mmmmph mph mm."
While that made absolutely no sense to anybody else, it seemed Nana understood exactly what her twin was saying/doing as she pulled her hand away with a sour frown. "Don'tt let it slip your mind again, it was bad enough when 'that' happened, I really don't want to think about it anymore than I have too."
"Yeah, yeah, I know, neither do I." Momo said as she shivered briefly.
'Part of me wants to know what they are talking about, but I'm pretty sure I really, really don't.' Mikan and Rito unknowingly thought in sync, both of them knowing that whatever it was had to be pretty bad if it got the twins to actually agree on something so adamantly.
"Ah! That! Yeah, this is about that." Konohamaru remembered the reason why he had wanted to see Naruto, besides getting some training from him.
Yami still didn't know what that was, but she was more curious now.
"Quit dragging it out and tell us what it is already dammit," Momo grumbled impatiently while throwing a wad of tissues at the screen, ignoring the bop she got from her mother for swearing. "I hate when shows keep dangling things in front of you like that."
"It does tend to get kinda annoying, especially when it just ends up being a complete let down when they finally do reveal it," Mikan added with a nod. "Like in that new Robo-changers movie we watched last week, where surprise surprise Autonomous Omega died and then came back to life… again."
"Ugh, I know right, he dies or seems to die so freaking often that it's a wonder why everyone gets sad about it anymore." Nana groaned while rubbing her brow.
"Greetings, Sarutobi... Hello Konohamaru." Yami shook her head, since based on Naruto's reactions, people didn't really care for being addressed by their full names. She nodded her head to the young boy, knowing that she would be training with him later against Naruto helped her desire to try and get along with him.
"If you call what will no doubt be a completely one-sided beat down training, then sure." Momo quipped playfully before yelping in pain when a thick stand of Yami's hair shot out and smacked her across the face faster than she could react.
Even though it was rather clear that he didn't seem to want to get along with her.
She wondered why.
"Listen! I'm Naruto-niichan's number one student and rival, so don't try and muscle in on my spot!"
"How cute, he really is jealous of you Yami-chan." Lala said with a giggle while Yami just rolled her eyes.
"Hehe, yeah, reminds me of when you first started playing with Run and Ren," Sephie said to her daughters, earning a confused look from her oldest while the twins immediately flushed red. However, when Momo and Nana opened their mouths to say something, the queen quickly clapped her hands over each of their mouths, effectively muting them. "Oh, you two got soooo upset that your Onee-chan was spending time with someone else, it was just so cute. Especially when you tried to scare them off by acting all possessive."
"Really Mama? I don't remember anything like that happening." Lala said, her head tilting to the side as she tapped her chin thoughtfully.
"Of course you wouldn't Lala," The queen said while both Momo and Nana frantically tried to get her to stop. "They only ever tried anything once you were out of the room."
"Oh," Nodding in understanding, Lala turned to give her little sisters a stern look (though it honestly looked more like she was pouting than anything else). "Well you two better not of done anything mean to Run-chan and Ren-chan."
Both twins started sweating nervously at that statement, quickly holding their hands up in surrender as they babbled out denials which the naive inventor thankfully bought. Like hell they were gonna tell her they threatened to toss her friend(s) into a starship set to fly into the nearest star, which they totally weren't actually gonna do… probably.
"... She's not trying to be my student, she and I went on a mission together. She around the same age as me too." Naruto mentioned as he placed his hand on top of Konohamaru's head. He grinned at the younger boy, who had his own cheeks flush in embarrassment.
"Dawwww~!" All the pinkette's in the room gushed at the same time at the cute sort-of sibling scene between Naruto and Konohamaru.
When Naruto took his hand away, the boy nodded his head. "Anyway... my treasure." Naruto reminded the boy once more.
He really wanted it back.
Konohamaru gave Yami a look, before he went towards the shed and unlocked it. When it opened up, a visible amount of dust escaped the always dusty shed.
"Huh, seems somebody skipped on the spring cleaning," Mikan said jokingly, getting a few giggles from the others. "But seriously though, somebody should really clean that place out, that much dust could actually be quite harmful."
"Oh please, I've dealt with way dustier than that without any problems." Mea said with a shrug, while Yami and Lala nodded in agreement, the former since she tended to blow things up with her hair-formed energy cannons and the latter thanks to how many of her inventions tended to… spontaneously combust.
Naruto walked by Konohamaru and went towards the safety box that wasn't covered in more than a few days of dust. He got down on his knees and grabbed the box, smiling, before he opened it up.
Everyone leaned in close, eager to see what the blonde's treasure was.
Yami saw orange.
"I kept your treasure safe!" Konohamaru exclaimed to Naruto, who gave the kid a thumbs up, and smiled widely.
'It's just...' Yami thought to herself, but she opened her mouth up. "... a jacket?" Yami finished her thought out loud. She couldn't help but hide the disappointment in her voice at seeing that Naruto's great treasure was just an old jacket that looked several sizes too small for him. It was in a condition that showed it had seen some serious battles, and been repaired more times than she believed Naruto could count.
…
"…Seriously? All that build up for a jacket? Man, what a letdown." Momo groaned while sinking back into her spot.
"I'm not really surprised." Mikan said while Sephie nodded.
"Indeed, it's probably a childhood memento, like how this one still has the wrench she used to finish her first invention, Wrenchy-grease-kun,"," The queen said, patting Lala's head as the inventor giggled, "Or you have the first plant you ever grew from a seed, Cottonfluff Sr.," Momo flushed a little in embarrassment while her mother rubbed her noggin, "And of course who could forget your baby Alusian fluffbat Mr. Fluffynickers." Nana stuttered out jibberish with a nuclear blush as Sephie's fingers ran through her hair.
"Oh, or like how my bro still has-" "Don't you-GAMMMPH!" "-his old teddy bear, Cuddly Carly, in his closet," As Mikan spoke Rito tried to grab her to stop her from talking, only for the young brunette to catch both his arms and promptly shoved him face first into the mattress before pulling out her cell phone. "He still hugs it every once in a while whenever he's feeling particularly down or can't sleep. Check it out."
Flipping her phone towards the queen, Mikan revealed a picture of Rito hugging a small worn looking red and pink teddy bear.
"Dawwwww~!" Lala, Momo, Nana, and Sephie gushed in sync, the former grabbing the down Rito and pulling him into yet another back-breaking hug (which might be a literal statement if that cracking was any indication).
"Don't insult it, that's Naruto-niichan's most precious treasure! He wore that when he first became a ninja!"
"It's fine Konohamaru. It's not valuable, and it's not some great treasure like I made it sound like. This jacket has seen me through so much, and I have so many memories in it. To me at least, it's something that I can never replace." Naruto held the jacket tenderly, moving his thumb across the old fabric. The sturdy material still held strong, and it had been through so much that even this condition was a testament to how tough it was.
"I'm confused." Yami said with a tilted head.
"Me too." Mea agreed while doing the same.
"I don't quite understand." Yami spoke as she looked around.
To bond with a mere object, to the point that one could look at it so lovingly. Yami had never seen somebody, or had anything herself, that was so cared for. She really did expect something more than just a jacket, but then again, they were surrounded by a lot of junk.
At the same time, both transforming girls turned towards Sephie with questioning looks, making the queen giggle at how cute the pair unknowingly were as she already knew what they were nonverbally asking.
"Well it's kinda complicated dears, I'm not so sure that's really something I could explain," She started while twirling a bit of her hair with a finger. "You'd have to experience it for yourself to really understand, but essentially the jacket is a physical memory and a trophy to him. A kind of reminder that helps him remember what he'd done and how he got to where he is now."
"…Alright." Yami stated with a short nod, while Mea just shrugged and turned her attention back to the screen.
"Yeah, this shed was mostly used by gramps, so it's mostly his stuff here." Konohamaru told Naruto as the young man stood up.
Yami glanced at something.
"You're symbol." Yami looked at a small box that had the symbol that Naruto wore on his jacket, a red spiral. Naruto glanced towards where she was looking, and saw that she was telling the truth. The same symbol he had been wearing since he was a child, was indeed on one of the boxes. It had a lot of dust on it, but the dulled red symbol was still noticeably there.
"Oh cool! Maybe it's an old family heirloom!" Momo exclaimed, suddenly full of excitement again at the sudden prospect of actual treasure.
"Old dusty storage room, previous letdown, sudden unexpected reveal, yeah that fits the theme for dramatic heirloom reveal." Mikan listed off as she rubbed her chin thoughtfully, earning a series of agreements from most of the room.
The only exception to this was Yami, who's eyes suddenly narrowed when she looked at the swirl symbol on the box while her hand drifted towards the book at her side, her finger running over the orange swirl part of the symbol on the cover.
Konohamaru looked at it and blinked.
"Ah... she's actually right." He grabbed the box as he spoke, and he opened it up and looked in it.
He tilted his head.
All that was inside of it was a scarf and a note, the scarf being a green scarf with white lines running across it.
As soon as this was revealed, Momo fell backwards with a loud irritated groan. "More clothing!? You got to be kidding me!?"
The note had the same red symbol on it, but underneath it, it also had a name as to who it was addressed to.
Naruto
"Wait, what?" And just like that she's back.
"So it's not an heirloom but a gift huh? Looks like you hit the nail right on the head earlier, huh Mrs. Deviluke?" Mikan said while nudging the queen playfully.
"Indeed, and I told you dear, just call me Sephie… or mother if you'd prefer," Sephie retorted while patting the brunette's head. "We are gonna be related one day if my daughter has anything to say about it after all."
Glancing over at said pinkette, a sweatdrop ran down the back of Mikan's head when she saw that Rito had once again passed out in the princess's grasp, whether from oxygen deprivation or his own embarrassment unclear. 'That's assuming Rito lives long enough for that to happen.'
"... It's for me?" Naruto asked, since he was the only Naruto in the village, it could only be addressed to him. Naruto was given the box by Konohamaru, and he took the letter out of the box. With one hand, he opened it up, and blew the dust away from the words.
I hope this keeps you warm.
Love, Mom.
"Aww, it's from his mama, how sweet." Lala gushed as she hugged Rito even more, the poor boy starting to turn a bit blue at this point.
However, unnoticed by the cheerful and naïve girl, she was the only one having such a positive reaction at this discovery.
Mea and Yami were neutral as usual, which was sadly expected given their… erm, lack of understanding of the significance.
Meanwhile, Mikan, Momo, and Nana shared confused and suspicious looks, all three of them wondering the same thing. 'Why is Naruto just seeing this for the first time?'
And lastly but most interesting was Sephie, who at first had an identical expression to that of her younger daughters. However, unlike them, that shock quickly turned to understanding… and then almost immediately to a mixture of sadness and anger, her hands clenching into fists as her shoulders started to tremble.
Naruto reread the letter, one, twice, five times, he couldn't stop rereading the letter as he looked at the words over and over. He looked at the last two words more than anything though, the messy handwriting that looked so much like his own. The way that she tried to cram so much emotion into so few words, and kept her writing short and to the point, reminded him so much of himself.
"What does it say?" Yami asked Naruto as she tried to look at the letter.
Naruto didn't respond.
"Naruto-niichan, who is it from?" Konohamaru decided to ask, and he gave Yami a superior smile, knowing that Naruto would tell him the answer. His grin slipped though, when a minute passed and Naruto didn't look away from the letter. Both of them, Yami and Konohamaru, looked at Naruto's back. They could see his shoulders shaking, and he had gone completely silent. "Nii-chan?" Konohamaru placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder, and tried to get his attention.
"Ma."
That one word managed to catch Lala's attention, snapping her from her cheery mood as she finally noticed something wasn't right. Taking in what was currently happening on screen, the naive girl's head tilted to the side in confusion.
'... His voice sounds strained.' Yami thought when she heard the struggle to his those words out for Naruto. She walked only two steps, but with those steps, she was able to see his face. "You're... crying." Yami had never seen Naruto look so happy... but cry before. She had never seen anyone cry while looking happy.
'I am confused as well.' Yami thought in agreement with her other self, completely lost on why someone who looked like they were ready to burst with joy would be crying. It just didn't make sense to the transforming blonde, crying had always meant sadness when she saw someone shedding tears, so how could somebody be happy but cry?
Tears were falling down his cheeks, but he had the most dopey smile that she had ever seen on him, his tears dripping to the floor off his chin.
"Don't talk to that boy."
Love, Mom.
"It's that boy."
Love, Mom.
"Mama, what's going on?" Lala asked uneasily, shrinking into herself a bit as the cruel harsh insults rang out like gunshots despite being barely louder than whispers. Her question went unanswered though as the queen was to busy trying, and failing drastically, to reign in her rapidly building wrath.
"Naruto?" Yami saw Naruto's shoulders shake more, and his breathing changed. His breaths came quickly, no longer was he trying to speak. She saw his eyes were unfocused slightly, and his breathing sped up.
Konohamaru pat Naruto's back, and Naruto dropped the box and the letter.
"Man, you're mom makes a great scarf!"
'You inattentive moron!' Most of the room thought, unable to believe that the boy had yet to notice the whiskered blonde's current state.
"Can you imagine if they let someone like that become a shinobi?"
Love, Mom.
Cold eyes, Naruto could picture thousands of cold eyes looking at him, the eyes of those who disapproved of him. All rushing into his mind, years of nobody giving him any kindness crashed down on his shoulders all at once. The existence of this scarf, the existence of his mother's love, had been around all this time, and nobody had ever given it to him when he needed it.
"Get out, you're not wanted here."
Love, Mom.
"Oh… oh my…" The metaphoric lightbulb finally lit up in Lala's mind, her eyes watering as the genius part of her brain finally got the information it needed and started rapidly clicking the pieces together faster than she could assemble any invention. "How could… that's just… why?"
"Naruto-niichan, are you okay?" Konohamaru asked when Naruto didn't respond to his statement the first time. Not only were Naruto's shoulders shaking, but his hands were too. His breaths were fast and heavy. Konohamaru's expression changed from happy, to worried, when he saw Naruto look at his own shaking hands.
Pain.
'... My... my chest hurts... I can't breath.' Naruto could barely think as everything, his entire life, hit him all at once.
Why?
Love, Mom.
Why had nobody ever given this to him, when this one gift would have brought him such happiness? Just to know that his mother loved him, and made this scarf for him, would have made his childhood so much happier than it was.
"He should have been killed when he was born."
Love, Mom.
'That's so cruel, no, it's beyond cruel,' Mikan thought sadly, a single tear dripping down her cheek as she watched Naruto essentially collapse into himself mentally. 'It's like someone wanted to strip away any possible chance he could have had for happiness.'
"Naruto... Naruto... Naruto." Yami spoke his name as she shook his bicep, trying to snap him out of whatever was wrong with him.
His face wasn't happy anymore.
'That look, it feels so… wrong.' Yami couldn't help but think upon seeing the sadness, the pain, the betrayal, and the pure despair on Naruto's face. It just felt so unnatural, to see such a thing on the face of someone that had always appeared to be happy and smiling.
'I hear... all of the voices...' Naruto thought, all of the nasty things everyone had ever said to him all his life ringing in his ears. The sounds were absolutely deafening, he couldn't even hear Konohamaru or Yami saying his name.
His skin was tingling, and he felt cold.
Love, Mom.
"You don't belong."
Love, Mom.
"You're the demon fox!"
Love, Mom.
The whispers just kept coming, thousands upon thousands of harsh insults, demeaning names, cruel threats, and hate filled statements flowing out like a tidal wave for all in the room to hear. Yet at the same time, those two words would continue to repeat in a soft, gentle, loving tone, staving off the rest if only for a brief moment.
Naruto moved his hand to his heart, but he couldn't feel how hard it was beating with his cold, tingling hands. His heartbeat was painful, really painful, and he could kind of feel somebody shaking his body. He couldn't tell if he was standing, or if he was floating, because he was starting to lose the feeling in his legs.
Naruto dropped to his knees, and fell to his face, grasping his chest and trying to catch his breath, as everything around him started to fade away.
"Naruto/Nii-chan!"
Konohamaru and Yami were by his side the second Naruto hit the ground, now the fact that something was wrong with Naruto obvious. His trouble breathing now at it's peak. Naruto tried to get air into his lungs, but it didn't seem like his body wanted to breath. Even when he breathed, it didn't make the pain in his chest go away.
"Naruto is hyperventilating." Yami didn't know what to do. She grabbed Naruto's arm and started to shake him, to get his attention and try and calm him down.
'What should I do? What can I do? …Can I do anything?' Yami wondered, her brow creasing heavily as she tried to think of a solution, an answer, anything that her other could use to help her fellow blonde. Sadly though, all that appeared in her mind was one big blank, serving to do nothing but frustrate the transforming girl.
Love, Mom.
Those words... Naruto felt as if he could hear them, as if a pretty voice was saying them. Only, those words were being drowned out by everything else. Naruto started to close his eyes as most of his vision faded to black. Naruto saw two people above him, and he could see them moving their lips... but their words were so far away from him.
It hurt.
Love, Mom.
It hurt so much.
Love, Mom.
Naruto glanced up, and as the last of his vision faded away, he saw white feathers that seemed familiar, but for some reason he couldn't recognize them. Naruto reached up to try and touch them, but he lost the strength to move as the last of his vision faded to black.
Then, nothing.
…
…
Silence
Almost absolute silence filled the bedroom as the screen went back to buffering mode, only broken by the soft sniffling of Lala as she snuggled her face into Rito's chest. And this silence would continue until Sephie finally stood up and started to walk over to a corner of the room, her entire body trembling as she did so.
Placing her hand against a small square, it lit up briefly before part of the lower wall opened up to reveal a toilet and a sink whilst two dividers shot up behind her, blocking her from view.
"Those fucking son of bi-" *Crash* *Bang* *Crackle* "-goddamn-" *Thunk* *Bang* *Bam* *Screeeek* *Thud* "-ever get my hands-" *Crck* *Clunk* *Clang*
This went on for nearly five whole minutes, with everyone else in the room simply staring on in shock as the walls of the hide-a-bathroom shook wildly.
Once it finally settled down, those same walls descended back into the floor to reveal the haggard queen standing over a completely thrashed sink before it vanished back in the wall, her breathing heavy and normally graceful composure gone. Bits of metal and porcelain were embedded in her knuckles and blood was slowly oozing from the wounds to the floor.
"You okay mom?" Momo asked nervously, snapped from her previous shock-induced stupor by the eldest pinkette's highly uncharacteristic burst of rage.
"Just… fine… dear," Sephie gasped out, raising a hand to her chest as she took several deep breaths to help regain her wind and calm herself down. "I'm sorry, it… it just made me so angry… I had to get that out of my system."
"Yeah, we can see that." Nana muttered before pulling out a first aid kit from under the bed. "Come on mom, you should get those-" *Tap* *Tap* "Huh?"
Feeling something tapping her shoulder, Nana turned towards the source before yelping in surprise when she saw a familiar white-haired whiskered-faced child standing next to her holding up a note saying 'Don't worry, I'll take care of that.'
"Oh, little Naru's back!" Lala exclaimed, her mood almost instantly improving as she rushed over and scooped the necromancer up into a hug. "Hi little Naru! What are you doing here? Did you come to see us? Did you? Oooh, did you-"
"…" Before the bubbly princess could keep giving out question, SKU whispered something in her ear and suddenly the pinkette went still as her face became unusually calm and serene expression.
"Hey! What did you to Lala?!" Mikan demanded while she and the other girls tensed up.
I told her to relax
The little necromancer 'said' as he slipped free of Lala's grasp and walked over to Sephie, coming to a stop right in front of her as he started to write in his notepad.
"N-necromancer-sama, it's uh… nice to see you again," The queen said awkwardly with a small bow while trying to quickly clean up her ruffled appearance. "May I-I ask why you've stopped by?"
Not answering, the whiskered child kept writing for a few moments before tearing the paper out of the book, folding it up, and holding it up for pinkette. Taking the offered note without thinking, Sephie couldn't help but pause when she saw that her hand was completely healed.
Glancing at her other hand and seeing that it was all fixed up as well, she turned back to thank SKU, only to end up yelping in surprise when she saw another whitette standing next to the necromancer. This one was a young girl, looking around the same age as Naruto with identical armor, longer hair, and a blue dress under her armor.
Both were staring at each-other intently, rapidly exchanging notes at high speed which the queen just couldn't keep up with, only able to catch a few words here and there such as 'Costume' 'Shopping' 'Behind schedule' and 'My turn'.
Eventually the pair seemed to settle on something though or maybe the new girl just got fed up with SKU, hard to tell since neither showed any form of emotion during all of this. Either way, the unknown whitette grabbed her fellow armor buddy by the arm and dragged him through a portal that popped into existence right behind her.
Once they were gone though, silence once more reigned within the bedroom, as all the current occupants just stared on with blank and baffled faces.
…
Slowly standing up, Nana finally decided to voice everyone's thoughts. "Okay, what the f-"
-End Chapter-