Warning: This chapter has swearing, violence, and PTSD. Proceed at your own risk.
"Maki, wake up. I need to take you out today."
She instantly bolted up with a grin.
"Where?!" He chuckled.
"Just get dressed." She nodded, jumping out and running towards the bathroom. Tenzo frowned and walked down the stairs and to the kitchen table, where he had prepared breakfast.
He didn't like what the hokage had ordered him to do. He was to take Maki to T&I so they could check her memories, to try and understand her better. It wasn't a suggestion, no.
It was an order.
The hokage himself had ordered it, and the hokages word is law. For once, Tenzo found the rules and law annoying. But, he was an ANBU and a shinobi of the leaf so he didn't have much choice. He made sure to build as much energy for this day.
Three more weeks, it had been since he discovered her fear of alcohol and since he started practicing the shadow clone jutsu with her, which she had mastered on the third day since, apparently, she understood a lot about chakra.
It was...
Weird?
God, he hoped she wasn't going to be a prodigy. That never ended good. If you want proof, just ask his senpai. Now, he was hoping she would become strong, but he didn't want her to be labeled as a prodigy because of how valued they were. Honestly, genin at five? He couldn't help but wonder how desperate the hokage was when he made that decision.
"You okay, yo?" He froze.
"Yeah. Take a seat." She slowly nodded and jumped onto her seat. He began to sweat as he felt her eyes piercing his head. He couldn't help but sigh in relief when she turned her gaze to her food and began slowly eating.
"Can you teach me any earth jutsu?"
"No."
"Worth a try." She smirked, though her mind soon wandered off to somewhere else.
There was a lot she could change, and a lot she couldn't. The important thing is whether she should change things? To most, the answer would be a simple yes. It was obvious, right? But to her, it was complicated. Everything that happens in the original plot happens for a reason. For example, the war brang all shinobi together, thus resulting in the shinobi alliance and thus peace was obtained.
Another example?
Sasuke leaving motivated Naruto to become the best he could be.
But he could always do that without having to lose a friend. It was hard, to know that the massacre must happen. But...Maybe she could somehow save the clan without physically doing anything? Doubtful, but not impossible.
So, she would try.
Try like she always does, and hope like she always does.
The only problem with her, is that in case the Uchiha massacre does happen. She would live with that guilt for a very long time, knowing she could have changed it. She always felt guilt, no matter how small or how big, she always felt guilt. And it weighed her down constantly.
She had so much issues from the past, that she felt like she was drowning in them. Now, with the entire fate of this world in her hands, it was becoming unbearable. If the Uchiha clan were to die, she would regret too much. She would look back, even though most never wanted to and didn't, she did. She had to look back.
The pain in her heart made her feel alive. It reminded her she was human no matter how numb she felt. She may be afraid of alcohol, but her true greatest fear, was being swallowed by that darkness in her pounding heart.
What would happen if it did? So she busied herself so much, that she became numb. Her body felt nothing, no matter how others saw it. And hopefully, the rare person who understood her would meet her and help her.
She had yet to meet this person.
"Alright, time to go." He picked her up, something he had for some reason grown a habit of, and teleported them straight to their destination.
"What are we doing in T&I?"
"You know where this is?"
"Yeah, I pass by Mr. Ibiki going here every morning when walking to the academy." He nods.
Soon, a familiar blonde haired man appeared with a large smile directed to the both of them.
"Mr. Inoichi!" He chuckled.
"Hello there, Maki~!" She grinned.
"How have you been?"
"Great!" She managed to stop herself from rambling as they walked into a room.
"I want you to stay calm, alright Maki?"
"Eh? What are you-?" He placed his hand on her head, and she was suddenly asleep.
"You ready?" Tenzo nodded, walking to the stone table and lifting her shirt up slightly to show the glowing seal. He casted hand signs as wood surrounded them and made pillars, ANBU circled around the area far away as the hokage appeared with a stern and serious expression.
"We must not let our guards down. Entering the mind of a Jinchuruuki host is very dangerous and could possibly undo the seal."
"Hai!" Tenzo hovered his hand over her stomach lightly as Inoichi neared.
"I'm going in." Tenzo nodded.
"Good luck."
"You as well." He nodded back and placed his large hand on her small head, placing his other hand into the ram hand sign and suddenly appearing in her mind. At first, it was only dark, which was normal, but soon as the darkness cleared doors started to appear. Inoichi slowly floated to the door that was labeled 'Important memories/ memories in general' and opened it.
He struggled to open the door even more than he usually would and he guessed it was because of the tailed beast, eventually he was able to unlock the door as a flash of white blinded him.
'FIRST MEMORY. CURIOSITY AND CONFUSION.'
"Okay, that's normal..."
He watched the memory show a young girl in the library, at what he assumed to be the simple age of five, reading a chapter book.
Okay, now that was a nice flex. Reading chapter books at the age of five? Damn!
"World War II." She muttered and flipped open the book.
World war? He wondered. Maybe it was like the shinobi wars? He watched the next scene unfold as she placed the book away, seeming confused until she walked over to a black square shaped object, that somehow projected images when she pressed a button. That was one thing he noted down.
He watched the images start to move on the object, as if it was happening.
But...
These weren't happy images.
At all.
Bodies lied everywhere in the video, and they were all piled up. Terrible, he thought. But Maki was unaffected. In fact, her eyes remained the same until the video ended. She soon left the library with a casual wave to the woman at the front desk and left.
The scene changed. And so did Maki. She seemed about six years old now.
"Death?" Maki muttered while looking at even more videos on something. She searched and searched, and at this point, Inoichi assumed she was growing increasingly desperate and curious.
"But why do we die?" She searched another book and placed the one from before, aside. Her face morphed into a frown and her eyes seemed to spark with something.
"Nobody should be able to decide when to end someone else's life or to extend it...No one has that right..." She grabbed out a paper and quickly sketched out something that the Yamanaka couldn't see.
She picked her bag up and placed all the books back in their places.
"Wait, Maki!" Maki stopped in her steps and looked at the person behind her.
"Mr. David?" The man panted and placed a book in her hands.
"This book...You would like it! I recommend reading it!"
"David! Shut your trap!" He winced as one of his co workers yelled at him.
"Sorry!" He whisper yelled.
"But...I can't pay for the book...And I don't have a library card..." He grinned and crouched down to her level.
"You're a kid who understands things that took me half my life to figure out. I want you to keep learning about this stuff, so I paid for it."
"But I can't Mr. David..." He ruffled her hair.
"Make sure to keep coming to the library! It's never the same without our little prodigy!" She grinned, practically bouncing with excitement.
"Thanks!" He nodded and watched her retreating figure leave.
Maki glanced down at the book and looked at the title 'To Kill A Mockingbird.' though she wasn't able to read it at the moment due to the rain so she placed it in her backpack and began running towards a house.
"What do all of these memories lead to? How do they change her?" He mutters and waits for the scene to change.
Meanwhile
"How's the beast, Tenzo?"
"It's stable. Nothing but a little resisting is all." The hokage nodded with his pipe in hand.
"Good. Inoichi, what's happening?" A drop of sweat rolled down the mans cheek.
"I'm looking at a scene of her running to her home, I presume?"
"Alright. Anything important?"
"Not yet."
"Proceed then."
"Yes sir."
"Where the hell have you been!?" Inoichi flinched and looked at the man who stood in front of the young girl, eyes full of hate and disgust.
"I-I..."
"Answer me!" He threw the bottle, but she fortunately managed to move her head to the side and allow it to smash on her shoulder instead.
"Start cleaning or I'll kill you!" He grunted and sat back down on the couch.
"Give me a beer!" She quickly rushed to the fridge, ignoring her bleeding shoulder and the small streak of tears that fell from her eyes.
She quickly ran back and away from them, hearing them argue.
"Turn it to the reality tv show you idiot!"
"The hell are you calling an idiot?!"
"Just do it!"
"You can't tell me what to do!" She sighed and walked up the stairs and towards a room with a small sleeping bag and lamp light, but that was all. Besides a few clothes and a small mirror of course. She sat down and grabbed her mirror, opening her backpack and grabbing a book along with a first aid kit and reading the book.
"Is that a first aid book?" He wondered, concluding it was indeed a first aid direction book. He watched her pull several small pieces of glass from her shoulder, biting her lip and crying silently in pain. The sight pained him, but he had of course seen worse. He knew there was more, he just needed to find the rest of her story.
After thirty minutes, she had stopped crying and wrapped up her wound, taking out the book from before. She stared at it for a few seconds before flipping it to the first page.
Maki finished the entire book the next day.
The next scene, she was walking to the library again.
"You already finished the book, didn't you?" She nodded.
"What did you think?" David smiled and walked with her as he stacked the books.
"It was good. I learnt a lot of things."
"Like what?" She stopped to think for a second, searching for the right words to say.
"Life is difficult, and those who are good tend to get it harder than they deserve." He stopped what he was doing and stared at her for a second before looking away.
"You know, It's kind of creepy how quickly you understand things." He smiled.
"I have another book for you though, it should take longer for you to read."
"What is it?" He pulled out two books from his cart.
"This one," He pointed at one titled, 'Malcolm X' "Is really important." He chuckled.
"Though I didn't even read it until eleventh grade." She looked at it and smiled.
"That's cool, yo..."
"And heres one for kids slightly older than yourself." He handed her one titled 'Refugee'.
"Thank you, Mr. David." He smiled.
"Anytime kid." He looked at the clock.
"You should get going. School should be starting soon." She nodded and started to rush to the doors.
"Enjoy your day!" He waved back.
~
"You're late." Maki sheepishly smiled at the woman who smiled softly. "I'll let it pass just this once."
Inoichi was confused. This was just like the academy, but they didn't teach a single thing about ninjutsu, or anything about chakra. He sped the memory until it stopped at an important spot.
"Maki!" A girl yelled.
"Yeah, Alexis?"
"You know how I'm leaving the country soon?" Maki pouted sadly.
"Yeah?"
"Well, I wanna give you something!" She pulled out a black object from her hands.
"What is that?" Maki took the medium black box from her friends hands'
"It's a hat!" Maki squealed, and he wondered why she was so happy for something as simple as a hat.
"Really? For me?!"
"Yeah! I know how much you love hats so I asked mom if I could let you keep it!" Maki glomped the girl.
"Thank you!"
"Hehe!"
Inoichi smiled at the small scene, as this one seemed to be important to her in a positive way. The scene changed again. And this time, it seemed to be one of the extremely important memories.
Though it's label really did frighten him.
'MAKIS FIRST WITNESS OF DEATH.'
Chapter End~
Edited October 11, 2021. I changed some things in here.