No One Stands Alone

Chapter 29

Chapter 29:

  "Are you and Daddy leaving again?" a little boy asks. He looks up with wide, innocent eyes.

  "Yes, but we'll be back in time to see you off for your classes," a woman replies. She looks down at the boy as he turns his face away. He begins to pick at a loose string on his shirt. "You have attend these classes in order to become a shinobi like your father and me."

  "I know." The young boy frowns at her response as he wrapped the thread around his finger. "But you're leaving."

  "Yes, Haruto," she consents. "We'll have to leave you again."

  "Can't I come with you?" He suddenly looks up at the woman. His gray eyes shine bright with hope. "You said I could come last time."

  "Haruto... I am not supposed to take you beyond the compound borders until you're older. You know that."

  The boy pouts. "But you promised! You promised that you would take me!"

  "Haruto, I shouldn't have promised you that..." The woman averts her gaze from her son's face, but the little boy just continues to look up at her with pleading eyes. She sneaks a glance, and the boy smiles. He knows she is weakening. "...Oh, alright."

  "Yay!" The boy jumps up in excitement.

  She kneels down to cup the boy's face in her hands to still him. "But if I'm taking you, you can't tell anyone, okay? Mommy can get into big trouble if anyone else finds out."

  The boy beams his widest smile and hugs her tight. "Okay!"

  "Now go pack. We will only be gone a few days." The woman pats the boy's cheek affectionately. He rapidly nods his head and runs off to their apartment to pack. She can't help but grin after him.

  "Are you sure about that?" a voice asks from behind the woman. "There's a chance of encountering an awakened being on this mission."

  The woman stands up and turns at the sound of her best friend's voice. "Why would an awakened being come back to the town it already raided? Does that make any sense to you, Kasumi?"

  The chunin is leaning against the wall further down the hallway. She pushes off the wall and comes closer. "I'm not saying the same one will return; I'm saying that another one may come to search for anything left behind."

  "Yuudai is coming with me too," the woman answers. "If anything happens, I'll protect Haruto, and Yuudai can fight the awakened being. We'll be fine."

  Kasumi shook her head. "You shouldn't risk this, Yoshino. Your son will only be a liability to you and Yuudai."

  The woman gave her friend a reassuring smile. "You worry too much, Kasumi. We'll be fine."

  As the woman turns away to go prepare her own bag for the mission, Kasumi shouts after her, "You're breaking the rules, Yoshino!" The woman stops walking. "If Hiroshi-sama or the Hokage finds out, you'll be suspended from any activity for months. You could even be stripped of your jonin status."

  "Then we'll have to make sure that they don't," she replies over her shoulder.

  "What will Yuudai think about this?" Kasumi runs to catch up to her. "I don't think he'll want to risk your safety or your son's life just so the boy isn't left alone with me for a few days again."

  The woman shrugs. "I'll convince him. This could be considered training for Haruto. He can observe real shinobi in action before he attends the clan's preparation classes and the academy in Konoha."

  "The mission is supposed to be B-ranked, Yoshino!" Kasumi tries to stress the danger again. "The Hokage may just want you two to escort the supplies to this town and help distribute them, but this big of a convoy will also attract a lot of attention. Awakened beings that survive on intercepting these aid missions will not just sit by and watch. The possibility that the Antiqi will appear is also high. Do you think you can still stand up to that?"

The woman stops and whirls on her friend. "If you're so concerned about us, Kasumi, then join us! We are supposed to be a team. The three of us—you, me and Yuudai—were supposed to be a team. If you came, there would be nothing to worry about. But instead you're staying here in the safety of the village and acting as an assistant to the Hokage and Hiroshi!"

  The chunin is taken back. Hurt flashes across her face and in her pupil-less eyes, but she wipes it from her face just as fast as it appears.

  "Fine. Do what you want." Kasumi turns away and marches down the hallway towards the stairs leading down. The woman watches her go.

  "I'm sorry," she whispers to the empty space in front of her. "I know you didn't want this kind of life. I know that it kills you that you can't continue as an active shinobi... I know, and I'm sorry."

~*~*~

  Tsukki stayed silent as the night around him stood still. The starless sky spared no light, and not a single sound pierced the air. The blond closed his eyes, but he found there was no difference between the darkness of his eyes closed and of the night.

Nighttime was when he could think. He could think about his father's sudden reappearance, his match against Daichi and his clan's secrets. He could reflect on himself and his actions during the chunin exams. But what he thought about first was the day his mother died.

  More specifically, he tried to call up the blurry memories of that night. He could remember asking his mother for him to join her on her mission, and he could remember packing his bags in excitement. But when he tried to recall exactly what happened after that, it was as if a wall in his mind stood in his way.

  He knew that his mother died to save him, but only because Kasumi would never let him forget his mother's sacrifice. He couldn't remember why he needed saving. He couldn't even remember what happened after her death that night besides his father leaving and him being forced to live with Kasumi. That night—no, the entire time they were on that mission that Tsukki had managed to persuade his mother to take him with her was wiped from his memory. From when they left the compound to when they returned, it was all gone.

  So what had changed?

  Tsukki knew that before the chunin exams, he was able to remember. Even if it wasn't clearly, he knew that he could properly recall those last few days with his mother. But now—

  A sudden thought occurred to him. Tsukki wanted to dismiss it immediately, but he couldn't.

  But now the only thing that changed since the start of the chunin exams was his father's return. His father's Victan has the ability to alter or even erase memories. But his father couldn't have used his Victan on his own son, right?

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