Preface: this chapter and the next will be mostly world building and slice of life. I'm not tripping balls anymore (well. not more than usual…) but I still want to apologize for the delay in posting. The last few weeks have been taxing. The two next one will be, too. I'll still try to update.
Chapter 22: The Damnation game
Contrary to what I excepted, I wasn't given more detention, this time. Our teacher simply gave me a stern lecture about the quality of punctuality and let me go back to my seat. The day continued without incident and the final bell rang.
I said good-bye to Yama and exited the classroom. Time to meet my little brother again.
The setting sun welcomed me. The day was slowly coming to an end and the last ray of light embraced me, before setting behind our Hokage's faces. It was a good day. Well… A weird day, right, but still…
I noticed the first years chatting before scattering and heading toward their respective parents, who were all waiting for them behind the academy's gate.
If they had parents.
I watched as Naruto stayed behind on the balancer of our playground. He looked happy to have met new friends but held back when they went to their families.
I saw Ten-ten simply leaving alone. As did Rock Lee.
Or if they had parents that cared.
I watched Hinata and Neji walking toward a non-descript member of their branch-family that was probably tasked to escort them home.
Can I do something about all that? Right now: no.
I've already attracted too much attention today.
I saw Kiba running toward our mother, dragging the Nara girl with him. Mom was speaking with Shikaku, our Jonin commander. Immediately, Kiba threw his arm around mom's legs, complaining with a smile that could melt the polar ice cap how school was so boring, but he met so many new friends and oh-by-the-way meet Shikako-chan and she's super cool and… I tuned him out at that point.
Shikaku then lifted his children in his arms. His daughter on his shoulders and his son in a piggy-back. I figured that moving Naras was probably a dauting task, but he seemed to have the gist of it.
I joined my little brother. With a little bit more restrain.
Mom said good-bye to our commander, who looked far too used of having a non-responsive boy on his back and a somewhat touchy-feely-with-his-hairs daughter on his shoulders and both families went their separate way.
The itinerary to the Inuzuka compound was quite a walk. When we'll be able to jump on roofs, (mom and I was, but it was too early for Kiba) it will be easier but now we had to take some detour through Konoha shopping district.
"So, how was your first day of school?" Started mom, holding our hands.
"Iruka-sensei is boring! But I've met some new friends! There's the Nara twins, the brother is all 'this is troublesome' but he still played with us."
Kiba was doing his best 'Shikamaru' impression. It was kinda impressive, to be honest. And cute.
"And the little sister is quiet. But when she starts to play, it's like we dance in her hand!
And there's Choji! He's slow but unstoppable! And he gave me some chips, that means we're friends right?"
Right on the mark, though I don't think you realized how sharing food is a Sacred Akimichi Rite of Friendship. I'm sure Tobirama is rolling in his grave right now. If his coffin hadn't already been unearthed for theNONONOOOO NOT THINKING ABOUT EDO TENSEI TODAY!
"I see, that's nice pup. But I've also seen you saying goodbye to a blond kid. He's also a friend?"
Expecting the question, I shared my mind with Moon-moon. He could read everyone's emotions without being suspected, since it is a deliberate technique that needs to be triggered for me, while he just does that passively.
Mom was tense. On edge. Scared.
I could, sadly, understand why. My mind went back to the day I witnessed the Kyubi attack. How mom would have been there, in the middle of the slaughter and still carrying a new life within her. How the Monster, for all intent and purposes, killed me. Dad breaking down and leaving the village to die. Leaving her in a burned world, and two remaining children to raise from the ashes that was her present.
Feeling her emotions, I had no doubt that even mom couldn't separate the Prisoner from the Jailer.
"…ruto, he's fun! He was timid, just looking at us, but Shikako went straight to him and asked if he wanted to play! And then he… JUST EXPLODED!"
Bad choice of words, little brother. Like… Reaaaaaaaaal bad choice of words…
"He shouted his name and that he would become the Hokage, and we better believe it! We played together and it was so much fun! He's super good! Then nii-san arrived, and he repeated his speech about the Hokage thing to him! But then we had to go back to school, but since he's sitting beside me and Iruka-sensei is boring, we chatted and he's like, super nice! But at the end of the day, when I said I was going to see you, mom, he just… Completely closed off! And he looked so sad! Also why is there no blond parents with you appart Baka-Ino's? Are his mommy and daddy too busy to welcome him? For his first day of school? That's super mean!"
At that moment, I felt AND saw the feelings of Inuzuka Tsume, the Fierce, change.
Tsume Inuzuka, born from a mother that died when she was one year old.
Born from a Sire that fled taking part in her life, only starting to act like one when she became a mother. And then disappeared forever.
Tsume Inuzuka, who lost her love, had to lie about the real reason to her last son.
How could she explain that he chose to die because he thought he failed me…? And that Kiba wasn't me?
"No one knows who his parents are…" Mom lied through her teeth. "He was found after a battle and was raised by the orphanage."
I knew why she did so: Hokage's order. She knew Namikaze Minato, who saved me from the darkness of ROOT in the past. I've also heard from my sensei that she and Uzumaki Kushina spent some time together when she was expecting Kiba.
Mom thought this was a harmless lie. A white lie.
In my mind, lies are… Pigments. You use them to add something or dampen something in your life. White lies are those you think safe, only making the painting that is your life a little brighter. But each lie demands a follow up, so you lie more, and add different pigments when discordance appear in the painting.
Then, after a while, having added so much colors, all that is left is black.
"That's…" My little brother let go of the hand of mom and stopped walking with us.
"But that's, like, super sad! He had no one to tell his first day of school! No one to tell he made friends! OH NO! I'BEEN MEAN! I'BEEN MEAN! I NEED TO FIND HIM AND APOLOGIZE!"
At that point, Akamaru… Jumped on his sweater. Yapping some cute sounds that I didn't try to translate.
Kiba's Friend was talking to him. This wasn't something I should overheard.
From what I've been told, my little brother bonded with Akamaru in the first seconds of the ritual. I learned after the fact that, usually, the Fierce Friend (Kuromaru) open the ritual by welcoming the new Inuzuka. Then after he started the ritual, a Ninken would come forward, or not. But when Kiba was brought to the ritual chamber, Akamaru was already standing behind the door.
My little brother calmed itself with his Friend in his arms.
"Yeah, you're right Friend, sorry for freaking out. Hey, mom?" My little brother then turned his attention from his Friend to our mother.
And did the most disarming begging face I ever saw. One that I should try to imitate.
"Can I invite him to my next birthday party? I mean I want him to be here! He'll be alone if you refuse, and I will have fun while he's not and I don't want to! Please! Pretty-please!"
Boom, heartshot.
I didn't even need to 'feel' my mother's emotions. Just looking at her was enough to feel the guilt.
I watched as my little brother effortlessly did what I tried so many times and failed. Having a cute and innocent expression that melt the heart of anyone that witness it.
Okay, time to observe the difference between our approaches and learn from it.
Begging eyes that never left their target? Check. I'll admit, I tend to close my own after a few seconds. 'The eyes are a mirror to the soul' and so on.
Hands held together, close to his heart? Hmmm, okay I don't do that. Usually, I don't care and keep my arms close to my body.
His mouth mouth… Well, he's definitively not smiling. Kiba's lower lips are trembling but he's keeping eye contact. I don't know even need mind reading because the message 'I won't be angry if you refuse but I'll be sad' is screaming in my head.
On that point I must admit I always try to sport a harmless smile, tilt my head to the side, like I have no harmful intention behind it… And then it hit me.
Holy fuck, I'm smiling like Sai.
"Well…" Said mom in a loving voice. "If that's what you want then I don't see why I should refuse… But Shinji, how was your first day?"
Oh shit.
"Well… It was nice. My new teacher, who didn't say his name now that I think of it, seems nice. A little overworked, but nice. Also, I got a detention during recess, and he asked me to have a word with you about It. He gave me a note for you to sign."
The last part was a lie, of course. She would have no problem detecting it but will understand the 'we need to talk privately' that wasn't said.
"First day of school…" Sais mom dejectedly, while walking toward our house.
We entered our home. Hana was sitting on our sofa, reading a medicine book.
"Kiba." Started our mother.
"Go unpack and start your homework. Hana! Help him with them, when you are finished come to the garden. Now that Kiba is a student we'll be working on both of your savagery. Don't be late."
Kiba ran into the stairs leading toward our room. Far too eager to be at home and finally train after his homework.
"And please tell me WHY I should do that when it's your job, mom?" Said Hana in a cold voice, clapping her book shut.
She was 10 years old now, was my big sis having her rebellious phase? I wanted to know because I will need an alibi for when she'll burn the house down.
"Because my cute little pup managed to get a detention on the FIRST HOURS OF SCHOOL, and I need to make sure this doesn't happen again."
Said mom in a voice so cold that it could have frozen the sun.
Without breaking eye contact with me, Hana placed her book on the table.
"Seriously…?" Her tone was colder than mum's.
"Well, in my defense, I didn't know that…." I said, completely frozen.
"You broke MY record?" She continued with a mix of… Coldness and amusement. I tried to look like I was embarrassed.
I refused to make eye contact with her.
Without saying anything else, Hana got up and put her book in a shelf close to her, before heading toward Kiba's room. Mom moved toward her study, gesturing me to follow her.
Mom study was… What you would expect for the head of a tracking division. Maps were pinned on the wall. Opened scrolls on her desk, probably about things I shouldn't be aware of.
Then, Tsume Inuzuka sat at her desk and her eyes... Met mine and I felt every fiber of my body turn to stone.
"Before we begin, Shinji Inuzuka, let me indulge this, because I know I'll need it."
Oh… The Firstname Lastname technique. We don't do that in the country I'm from but... That means I'm dead usually, right?
Mom then opened a drawer of her desk and fetched… A sake bottle. And a cup.
She filled the cup to the brim and raised it in front of her mouth.
"What have you done again?"
I thought about how to explain it to her. But then… I thought… Where was the fun in that?
"Why does the son of the Yellow Flash smells like the Kyubi?"
Her reaction was… Underwhelming.
She just looked at me for a few seconds, while holding the cup around her mouth. Then my patience was rewarded when she broke eye contact.
Abandoning the cup, she grabbed the bottle and gulped the whole pitcher before me.
"First day of school…"
The lightly slurred voice of my mother echoed in her study.
"First day of school and he uncover not one but TWO S-rank secrets… I get it, Mikoto-chan… After all these years… It wasn't a compliment; it was a warning…"
I chose not to react this time. Depending on how you see it, Itachi's entire existence was a curse on himself and his whole clan.
Note to self: avoid the Uchiha district in the future. Just in case I'm taking a walk with Moon-moon on that day.
"Very well…" Mom continued, locking eyes with me. "I hoped to have this talk with you later, way later, but I guess it can't be helped. So. How did you find out?"
"You mean that he's the son of the former Keeper? Huuuuuh… Mom? Have you seen his face? Or his eyes? Or his hair? Or his… Pretty much EVERYTHING?" I said while gesturing wildly in the general direction of the Hokage monument.
"That's… Acceptable." Said mom.
"Actually, we tell this secret to our children when they have the same reasoning. Kids don't really get the whole 'you look like your father' meaning until their teenage years but, as usual, you found it before… By the way, Hana also figured it out. So, I'll tell you what I told your sister. Don't. Speak about it to anyone. Ever. Am I clear?"
"Yup." I simply answered. "Sensei told me the same thing, when we were alone during my 'detention'" I did some finger-air-quotes to emphasize the point.
Maybe I won't die today if she thinks I wasn't really put into detention…
"He also told me why this rule was created and… I sort of agree. He'll be dead within a month if the news of his existence spread. I don't like it, but I accept it. So, please, mom, invite him to Kiba's next birthday."
"Why do you care about that?" Mom asked with genuine (that I could feel) curiosity.
"You would too, if you had seen the utter confusion in his face when he gave me his 'I'll be the next Hokage' speech and I simply told him it was a goal worth striving for.
He needs Friends. That kid is 'Everybody's someone-else's-problem', so he's alone at the end of the day. He's not used to having people looking at him. Not just in his general direction."
At that moment, I placed my hands on the desk of my mother and looked at her with whatever steel I could still find in my soul.
"I haven't told anyone but Friend. After reading my grandfather rules and refusing them with all my being, some outlines of My Rules started to appear in my mind. I'm still unsure about them so I won't say them now, but know this. The fourth and thirdwill not exclude orphans."
I sensed mom steel herself.
"Even with the second part of your 'question'?"
Oh. Yeah. That.
"Hummm… I think I chose the wrong words… Give me a second, please."
I crossed my arms in a thinking pose, saying lightly 'how to explain it… How to explain it…' for a few seconds before HEEEEEEY HELLO RELEVANT METHAPHOR!
"Okay it's like you drown yourself in perfume then don't bathe for a year. After all this time the smell of the perfume would be overpowered, replaced by stronger, fouler smells but… It would still be there! Like… A lingering trace, or something! That's basically what I smell right now!"
I hit my right hand in my other palm while saying that and smiled at my mother. That seemed… Not happy.
"Shinji Inuzuka."
Huhoh… Is that killing intent I feel in the air?
"Are you… Implying… SOMETHING?!"
FRICK MICH! I'VE FORGOTTEN I'M BAD WITH METAPHORS!
"NOOOOOOOOONONONONOOOO! BAD CHOICE OF WORDS! BAD CHOICE OF WORDS AGAIN! THE SAKE'S GOING TO YOUR HEAD! PLEASE DON'T KILL MEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
Mom then sloooowly got up from her sitting position, did some hand seals and… The world became Quiet.
Like… Quiet, and it needed the Majuscule. No noises, everything I've learned to ignore in my daily life fading.
No Konoha daily life in the background.
No one walking and talking around our house.
No Shinobi jumping around.
No Kiba complaining he doesn't want to do his homework. Just… Quiet.
"There's silencing tags on the walls so no one outside can overhear us." Mom said in a calm voice, one that I was hearing more clearly than ever.
"Mandatory when you are the head of whatever division in a village populated by spies. Sorry about the scare, Hana is trying to listen our conversation and I just wanted to have some payback. Take your time to adjust to it."
And take my time I did. I was hearing my Friend breath and my own. I heard my own heartbeat and my mothers. It was like… Like in the movies, when the lead character is thrown out into space, and everything stops making noise except his own heartbeat.
"So…" I said weakly, my voice sounding much louder in my ears now that I was suddenly cut out from everything I learned to live with. This experience impacted me more than I thought it would. "This is... After all these years… This is the Sound of Silence?"
"Yes." Mom said, her composure completely reverted to the Protector. "Because with your brother around we need this for the next part. What do you know, my pup, of Jinchurikis?"
"Jintsuruki?" I voluntarily misspoke, because 'Jinchuriki' was not even a real word.
And then… Mom told me everything she knew about the Bijus.
How, in the myth before the elemental nations, existed a monster called the Jubi that threatened humanity.
How two men, Hagomoro and Hamura, managed to split it in nine separate entities at the cost of their lives. How the two stars that stayed with the moon were baptized in their honor. To help people finding their way when mankind is lost in the night.
How the nine monsters, while weakened, were still a menace to mankind. And how the Sealing Arts were created to contain them.
How people figured out how to seal those monsters inside the body of children.
How the seal would always, ALWAYS, break and the monsters would come back.
Then, she told me the story of Namikaze Minato, born from nothing but one who grew to become a genius Seal Master. Minato, who in time fell in love with a refugee from the recently destroyed Uzumaki village. A young woman called Uzumaki Kushina, a woman full of life and laughter.
A woman who apparently loved trashing everything she didn't liked. A woman that became pregnant with our Keeper son.
And died.
At that point, I noticed that mom's body language changed completely.
"She was… She was my friend, you know? Uzumaki Kushina, Junchiriuki of the Kyubi and my role model when it came to Savagery…"
Mom was still looking at me, so I could see her trying her best to halt the tears.
"Uzumaki Kushina, Nara Yoshino, Uchiha Mikoto and me… We met while I was expecting Kiba, and you were just a little runt giving your sensei her first wrinkles…" Mom did an anguished laugh.
"The head of the tracking division, the wife of the Konoha police force, the wife of the Jonin commander, and the wife of the Keeper. All in maternity-leave at the same time… We saw each other almost every day, the fathers of our children still working… Kushina and Mikoto were like oil and a matchbox… We all threw the village into an amusing chaos in our outings… We ate junk food like it was nobody business, we were FEARED by every Akimichi restaurant in the village, we laughed together, we had to stop Yoshino-chan from killing her husband so many times… It was… So nice…
Yoshino-chan was the first of us to give birth. She had twins, you know them as Shikamaru and Shikako. Mikoto-chan gave birth to Sasuke… And I was supposed to be the next one… But…"
At that moment, I noticed that I was so enthralled with her story that I failed to realize that mom, The Fierce, had wrapped her arms around herself. The same defensive mechanism I saw in the hospital. A textbook definition of a well-controlled panic attack. As much as those things could be controlled in this world…
I took the time to wonder if this reminiscence was because of the sake she drank before, or because of a need to tell her story. This world criminally lacks psychiatrics.
Well, I can listen. It's a start, right?
"But… Before Kiba was born… Kushina's seal broke. Out of despair, she sealed the Kyubi inside her son… And died…"
Oh, yeah. That reminds me, I never took psychiatric lessons...
"The monster was repelled. At the cost of the Keeper life… My friend died that night, and for all those years I thought you died with her..."
I noticed that mom was looking at me. Well, she always was, but this time there was despair in her eyes.
"So please, PLEASE, my pup, stay away from him! I can suffer a birthday party with HIM in my house but please say to Kiba to stay away from HIM!"
I looked at my mother. Scared. Protective. But so scared…
There was only one answer to that, right?
"Nope."
"YOU DON'T GET IT!" Mom then jumped out of her seat and sent her chair directly against the wall.
"HE'S DANGEROUS! MY FRIEND'S SEAL WAS SUPPOSED TO BE PERFECT AND IT STILL FAILED! HE WILL KILL YOUR BROTHER! HE'LL KILL US! HE'LL KILL EVERYONE! THE FIRST MOMENT HIS SEAL BREAKS!"
"No, he won't." I said with all the finality that someone who had suffered through a lot of OAV and filler episode that was 'Naruto'. And Boruto, by curiosity. Uuuuuughhh I've made some bad choices in my life… I had a lot of free time, okay?
"Please, mom, the smell of the kyubi is stale. He's nothing more than young child. A young child who is alone and seeks friends. A young child that Kiba befriended, so I won't interfere."
"But you won't be safe…" Mom said in an anguished voice. I saw in her eyes the duality of the Hokage's orders.
Naruto is the Junchuriki of the Kyubi so be wary of him. But Naruto is not the Kyubi, so don't hold it against him.
A nice thought. But a flawed one. Everyone could see with their own eyes that Naruto was nothing like the Kyubi.
But everyone would try to keep their distance from Him. It's just common sense.
Telling your children to stay the FUCK away from him when he is what he is? It just good parental instinct.
You know? Just in case.
I, somehow, wondered if every child in his class were having this conversation right now. As did Kiba in the original timeline, I'm sure. It was never showed, the manga starting years after this.
I thought about the fact that the two people that finally came close to him, Sasuke and Sakura, didn't left him because…
Because Sasuke dismissed everything related to Konoha after his clan was purged.
Because Sakura, daughter of civilian parents just had no idea.
I looked at the ceiling. Futilely trying to look at the sky above me. Because, as usual, I was reminded how this world was full of morons. But morons that only wished the best for their children and… Morons that could only be called that because I had the proof in my memories that he never lashed out. Because her mother's seal was indeed perfect. Should I really call them morons?
"Just… Mom… Just take it as an early teenage rebellion. Please let my little brother have a friend."
"You won't back down from this, right? Even if you know who He is?" Asked mom in a tried voice, but then she looked at me with melancholic eyes. "Well… I… I… I won't stop Kiba to have… His first friend…"
The wording was strange, so I refocused my attention at mom.
"First friend?"
"You little brother was always trying his best, but he never had friends, you know? Other children found him… Annoying… He will always come back from our mom-gathering in the park saying that the other kids were boring but… But I saw that he was hurting… In his eyes, he was so alone… And today… He said he had made so many new friends…"
And then, the distant eyes of Tsume Inuzuka lost every trace of melancholy, as she looked her eyes with mine with the steel that a mother must have.
"Protect your brother."
"This, I swear."
She knew I knew the rules. I returned her gaze with a smile.
"Unless it's funny. It's my job as the older sibling after all."
And then she laughed. Kami, at that point I realized then how I had missed my mother's laugh.
The next day, I went back to my class. Yama-kun talked with me before Sensei arrived. I excused myself, saying I had a very bad night and Focused my senses. Straight to my cute little brother classroom. I felt the coming of Inuzuka Kiba, future clan head of the Inuzuka clan and undying supporter of the Future Seventh Hokage.
With Moon-moon helping me, I 'saw' every kid from the prototype of the Konoha twelve taking their seat. Hinata, Sakura, Shikamaru, Choji, Sasuke, Choji, Kiba, Hinata, Shino… The rest will follow but… For now, the Lead was missing. I felt him in the corridor. while the Extra was already in place...
He was so scared… I smelled the fear in him, slowly approaching his place in the seat he took yesterday, next to Shikako. How many times do parents ordered their child to stay away from him all these years…? He was preparing himself for the same disappointment. How many of those present were asked by their parent to stay away from him for something he cannot even understand?
Then I heard the Nara girl kicking the chair on her left. It was an invitation. 'It's empty, do something about it'.
Naruto smile was… Not blinding, I didn't need to use my enhanced sight for this, it was… Pure emotions... Like the feeling that everything is finally right in the world…
"Hey… Friend?"
"Hum? Yeah? What's wrong Moon-moon?" I asked in the mental space that was the Inuzuka imprint.
"Hmmmm…. I'm not sure how to explain it, Friend. But… You know? The whole 'reading the emotions of the weird Nara girl'? I didn't say anything because was interesting at the time but… It's kinda annoying now… How do you turn it off?"
…. What.