Chapter 3: Chapter 3: Childhood Arc: Two
Disclaimer: Naruto is still in possession of Kishimoto. I am still playing with his sandbox.
In the end, I got to keep all three of them. Ichi, Ni, and San. Who would still only respond to Ichi, Ni, and San personally, or Haimaru. Which is probably why I got to keep all of them now that I thought about it.
They liked me, although they found me quite strange.
"Why no eat food?" I look at Ni who was doing his best to look contrite after shredding Otou-san's shoes. He won't be happy about that. Otou-san is nothing like my former Dad, who doted on his daughters and found me his quite precious person, but I suppose war did make you short tempered and upset most of the time.
My new parents did not talk about the war, but they acted nothing like what I remember of Konoha shinobi during peacetime. They went on back to back missions and came back smelling like blood and hospitals. And if I am correct about being born at the same time as canon Hana, then I am just about Itachi's age. He lived through the third war, actually seeing it first hand.
To be honest, the memories of my former life were fading, I held fast to the Naruto ones despite them not really painting much of a picture of the new clan I found myself in, but innate facts that I had been so proud of knowing, such as the order of Chinese dynasties, and the chemical formula of Cryolite were just slipping my mind. Who cares anyway?
"Because not food." I respond, crossing my small and chubby arms across my chest. At this point, I am about two or so perhaps, I'm not entirely familiar with the passage of time given that I spend most of my time with the ninken or alone. There is a whole clan of people out there, but I'm not really old enough to visit them and for some reason or other, they don't visit me having spent so many months immobile, it is nice to be able to move around again, despite not being tall enough to reach anything of importance.
My dogs just thought that it was wonderful that I could finally play.
"But is food." Ichi appeared from around the corner with another slipper clutched in his jaws.
"Is not food." I respond. "Drop now." I didn't want to speak like a toddler despite being one, but my grasp of Japanese is still rudimentary at best. Ichi drops the slipper. San is still sitting next to me, so I pat his head. "You good. You two bad."
Ichi and Ni seem to shrink in on each other, and I smile and congratulate myself for being good at this.
"Tsume?" A woman's voice calls out from the front door, and I toddle towards her. A relative then, she's got the same hair as Kaa-san.
"Kaa not home."
She frowns. "That Tsume. Does she think that a three year old can stay in the house by herself?"
I resist the urge to frown at this. "Not alone. Has Ichi, Ni and San." I poke in the general direction of my dogs.
She snorts. "Not enough, pup." She reaches towards me and I scoot away from her.
"Who you?"
"I'm your cousin, Ashi. Now come on, Hana." Despite making a break for it, she catches me quite quickly and pulls me out of the house. "Kimaru, watch the puppies." Her dog herds Ichi, Ni, and San behind us as she carries me through the clan compound.
It is not as disheveled as I would have expected from Kiba's-my family. I correct myself. They were my new family. That is that. There were kennels and dog houses in every yard, and the foot paths seem to be arranged to point to a central location like spokes on a wheel.
"Where go?" Given how far our house is from the center of the clan compound, we must not be part of the Main House despite what fanon thinks.
"To my house." She'd said that she's a cousin, but that didn't tell me how she closely related she was. Everyone we passed was some sort of cousin or other.
"That Tsume's kid, you got?" A man falls in step with us on the foot path.
Ashi rolls her eyes at him."No Gaku. I have a three year old, didn't you know?"
I frown. "I two. Not three."
Gaku throws back his head and laughs. "There aren't any fangs on this one." He gestures towards my teeth and I a feel a huff coming on.
"Otou not have fangs either." I want to talk properly. I need to talk properly. Gaku clearly opened his mouth to say more, but Ashi punches him in the shoulder.
"Be quiet, you dumb oaf." She slides open a lacquer door and sets me down. "I'm home, Haha-ue."
"Ashi-chan, who is this?" The woman that bends down to look at me is tall and fierce, more so than Kaa-san.
"Hana. Aunty Tsume's daughter."
Ashi's mother straightens, an imperceptible frown gracing her lips. "I thought that we agreed we wouldn't visit until Tsume-chan and Kaito-san asked for help."
Ashi sets her hands on her hips and narrows her eyes. "She's three, Haha-ue, and she was left alone, at home, with three little puppies to keep her company. It's a wonder she hasn't fallen down, stabbed herself with a kunai and died yet."
Ashi's mother, whom I have christened Proper-Inuzuka-san glares back at her daughter. "My imouto has made it quite clear, that when she married that man from Iwa that we weren't to be on speaking terms."
Ah, what? Otou-san was from Iwa of all places? Weren't we fighting Iwa? And Proper-Inuzuka-san is Kaa-san's sister? Oh that must explain why no one ever visits.
Ashi huffs and picks me up. "I'm keeping her with me until Aunt Tsume gets back. That's it." She stomps off and from over her shoulder, I see Ichi, Ni, and San tumbling after us.
I sit around in Cousin Ashi's room and wrestle with Ni for a while. Ichi and San ask for a go, but I turn to them sternly and say, "Stop." I turn back to my cousin. She'd the same wild dark hair, and dark eyes, and the same triangle tattoos, but her face was longer and her chin more pointed. "What Iwa?" It's best if I don't ask why Otou-san is from Iwa first. It might get awkward.
"You can speak to them?"
I tilt my head to the side. Is that an abnormal talent? "Un." I nod. "What Iwa?" It is still more important trying to figure out why my father was from Iwagakure no Sato of all places when we were at war with the place. How does active duty even work for things like that?
"It's a different village."
Okay...I might be two going on nineteen, but that's just a bit simplistic. "Why Otou-san from there?"
Ashi looked embarrassed and frustrated. "Look, he's not really from there, okay? It's a bit complicated."
I frown. This isn't helpful at all. Should I up the cuteness level? I blink and lean towards her while doing my best to cry. "But why Baa-san not like me?"
I never get an answer to this, as Kaa-san breaks through the door in a whirlwind. "There you are, little nose. Stop disturbing and let's go." I'm picked up by my collar, and Kaa-san effortlessly scoops all three of the puppies off the floor as well. "Thanks for taking care of my pup, gaki." And Kaa-san bares all her teeth at Cousin Ashi. "But next time, ask me first."
A.N. And thus the chapters get longer, and the original characters start coming, because there are about three canonically human Inuzuka characters. Ashi means paw, so I'm keeping up the Inuzuka naming conventions at the very least, and Ki means yellow, so Kimaru also befits the naming tradition of Inuzuka dogs. Hooray!
Regarding Hana's dad being from Iwa, all will be explained eventually, but normally people don't start talking to two year olds about the state of their dad's ethnicity. But he is a shinobi of Konoha. The Inuzuka just value loyalty, to the village and to the clan, so Kaito's personal background makes them a little uneasy.
Thank you so much to everyone who favorited and followed last chapter. Your support really drives my motivation to keep this thing moving along.
~Tavina
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