A Murder

A Spring

What do you call a group of Teals?

A Spring

Sora attempted to wrap the wiggling fingers in her pudgy hands with little success as her brother quickly withdrew his. Laughing in delight when she scrunched up her face in irritation. Though Sora allowed a fit of giggles to escape her toothless mouth as her sister hit the boy over the head, berating him, —or so she assumed based on the tone of the girl's voice— before reaching inside the crib to pick up Sora. Cradling the baby to her chest.

Their names were Riku and Umi, each a good few years older than Sora, sharing the same —rather large— black eyes and pale skin. Though Riku's was a shade or so darker than Umi's, with dark brown hair, cut short, causing it to fan a little at the back. While Umi inherited their mother's dark, straight locks, left to grow longer with only a straight black fringe.

Sora wasn't completely certain how she looked, considering her hair was little more than a fluffy tuff on the crown of her head. Not to mention that she never caught a good look at herself in a mirror. Having only seen blurry glimpses reflected on the surface of shiny objects.

The three sibling were crowded in a corner of the spacious room, the older two of the trio engaged in a competition to determine who could cause their baby sister to laugh the most. And Sora had to admit the increasingly ridiculous ways they attempted to do so did amuse her.

Their mother, secretly watching them while she cooked, a smile on her face, warned the two that dinner will be ready soon and they better wash their hands and set the table.

Sora was a bit put out when she was returned to her crib, holding in the cries which seemed to always start when even the slightest of upsetting things happened. There really was far too little she could do to entertain herself as a baby, especially while in the nicer equivalent of a shoe box. ('Thank the kami that baby bodies demand ample amounts of sleep,' for she knew otherwise she would go crazy.)

Logically she knew that she had to deal with it and that she couldn't expect to have her sibling around twenty-four seven for the sole purpose of entertaining her. Especially during the day time, when they went to —again she assumed— school.

Her mother made her way briefly to the crib once dinner was served to caress Sora's cheeks and ensure the baby was all right before going her other two children. Kotori was a wonderful mother as far as Sora was concerned and from what she could see of the woman's interactions with her siblings.

Tall and willowy, with long black hair that fell straight down her back and large black eyes, she could easily be a model for a magazine cover.

As for their father...well Sora liked him. Loved him even if she were perfectly honest. However, the man did not spend a lot of time at home. Arriving long after dinner was over and leaving early in the morning.

Nevertheless, if Sora happened to be awake whenever he arrived, the man would make a point to spend a little bit of time with her. Often picking her up and throwing her in the air —which she absolutely loved— mumbling nonsensical words that Sora struggled more than usual to understand.

All in all, Takeo wasn't a bad father is rather absent from his children's lives. He was tall, surprisingly muscular, with caramel coloured hair and —smaller— black eyes that would crinkle at the corners each and every time he smiled.

All in all she like her new family.

—.—.—.—

Sora was probably six moths old when she finally realised the extent of her new situation. Maybe she should have noticed sooner. Maybe she did but didn't wish to admit it.

What she did know, is that for the first time since she was reborn, Sora was taken outside and actually saw the place she lived in. The village she lived in.

Sora was born a bit premature and was on the smaller side of the spectrum which was one reason why her mother was particularly overprotective of her youngest child. So she wasn't often taken out of the house to reduce the risk of her getting ill.

However, when she was finally taken out the baby felt as though her eyes were deceiving her. They didn't live in a city, certainly not the kind she was used to. She would have been tempted to say they were rural except that wasn't right either.

There were no cars she could see or hear, but the streets were filled with people, shops and homes. And every single person was wearing some article of clothing with that symbol on the back.

She, of course, noticed it in the past or her sibling's clothing but dismissed it as nothing more than fan-clothing. However this? This was ridiculous. And it wasn't just on the children's clothes. Oh no. She spotted adults, elders, everyone wearing it. (She never noticed it on her parents' clothes as her mother's hair was long and left out and her father tended to wear this funny, padded vest)

It was even painted on the walls and on some of the homes.

By that point, Sora's brain was sounding the alarm bell and she didn't quite know what to think. She certainly didn't believe the first thought her brain produced. That would be ridiculous.

Then she saw them. She didn't know who "them" were, but they were a pair of teens hopping from rooftop to rooftop without a care in the world.

Sora couldn't even focus on the conversation her mother was having with the older woman in an attempt to try and understand what they were saying because she was too bloody stunned.

And nobody else seemed to be. Nobody so much as batted an eyelash at them.

It became all too much and too real when her mother began moving again, passing by people and houses with that symbol and exiting past a set of impressive double gates into an even busier area.

Here the shops and houses were getting more clustered, the streets were steadily filled with more and more people, and there were even more of the weird roof hopping people.

Sora caught glimpses of a shiny metal band tied around some of their foreheads, she paid more attention to the clothing they were wearing. Noting some seemed to be wearing what she could only guess to be a uniform. A familiar uniform.

She was in the process of trying to accept what she was being when the final piece of the puzzle

was added to the board and Sora had no arguments anymore. Staring upwards at the mountains now in her line of sight, the girl stared in mute shock at the three faces carved in it.

In the end, she did what any distressed child did.

She cried. And cried. And then cried some more in case anyone didn't hear her while poor Kotori attempted to soothe her.

Since then, the now brooding child had enough time to assess and accept her situation. As ridiculous as it was.

However that acceptance also came with a surprisingly deep depression. She just died! What was the point of doing the whole rebirth thing if she was going to die in a couple of years anyway?

Looking at the red and white symbol of the Uchiha clan she was born in Sora couldn't help but ball her tiny fists.