~~ 2 Months Later ~~
Mornings were my favorite time of the day in this new life. Not because I was a morning person or that I liked to see the sun rise or anything like that. Oh no, mornings were my favorite because every now and then I would wake up to a morning such as this one.
|[ You have slept in a bed for 11 hours. All HP and CP restored. ]|
|[ Your mind has further developed. Your intelligence increases by 1. ]|
|[ Your body has become more resilient. Your vitality increases by 1. ]|
|[ Your muscles have grown stronger. Your strength increases by 1. ]|
|[ Your bones have further developed. Your agility increases by 1. ]|
'Ahh finally, it's been so long since I last got one of these', I thought to myself as I yawned and stretched my limbs, arching my back while looking around the room. Noticing something out of the ordinary, my mind quickly regained full consciousness and began processing the situation before me.
'Hmm, that's strange. I usually wake up in the playroom. Why am I still in Tou-san and Kaa-san's bedroom? And there's no one here as well. Where's Ojii-san, my two Obaa-sans, Rumi or Kiyoko?'
Deciding that I first needed to exit my rocking cradle, I started climbing the vertical bars, pushing against opposing bars with my feet in order to get the needed traction to pull myself up towards the horizontal bar on top. Grabbing the horizontal bar, I then slowly lifted myself over the edge, and clung on to the vertical bars as I felt my body slowly descend as I slid downwards along the vertical bars. Letting go of the bars for the final drop of a few inches, I landed safely on my feet.
'Alright, time to discover what's going on. Should I investigate the situation in a quiet, stealthy manner or just start running around and speaking baby talk in my loudest voice to get someone's attention? Hmm. I think the quiet route seems to be the wiser choice. Discretion is the better part of valor after all.'
Sneaking towards the bedroom sliding door, I placed my ear towards the paper in between the wooden squares that made up this sliding door. Not hearing anything, I decided that the coast was clear and slid open the door. Looking left and right, I saw that there was no one in the hallway on either side. After closing the sliding door as quietly as I could manage, I then proceeded down the hallway towards the direction of the playroom.
'Did they forget about me? No, Kiyoko wouldn't forget about me. Did they go somewhere without me? Maybe. Did something happen that required their full attention? Possibly. Oh well, no use speculating, onwards!'
Walking on the balls of my feet in order to minimize the sounds of my footsteps, I carefully walked across the wooden floorboards, avoiding the ones that I knew would creak loudly if stepped on. Slowly and steadily I moved towards a junction in the hallway, the left turn would take me towards the playroom while the right led towards the kitchen and dining area.
Peeking my head around the left corner then looking down the right hallway, I saw that once again, both hallways were empty. And there weren't any sounds either. No laughter from Kiyoko, no voices talking, no sounds of cutlery against plates, nothing. It was as if the house was devoid of any living thing, people or otherwise.
'Erm, this is getting really weird. Where did everyone go? And why is it so quiet? It's actually way too quiet. This isn't normal. Did something bad happen? Oh shit, what if those anti-monarchy dudes who hate royalty broke in and are holding my family hostage? Oh shit, oh shit. No, no, calm down Genji. Don't let your imaginations go wild. Deep breath. One more, in then out. Ok. Investigate further before jumping to conclusions.'
Deciding that the playroom was the best option, I turned left and continued my cautious and steady pace, keeping any noise I made to a minimum. Reaching the sliding door to the playroom, I once again put my ear to the paper portion of the door's structure. Listening intently, I failed to hear anything. Not even the sounds of the wind blowing in from the open window, no sounds of the curtains moving, nothing. No sounds whatsoever.
'Ok, this is starting to freak me out. Do I slide the door open or not? What if Kiyoko or Rumi are in there and they're injured? Oh shit, oh shit. Ok, I got this. Open the door Genji, you big scaredy-cat.'
Sliding the door open an inch, I peered inside. Even though the lights were turned off, there was still some sunlight coming in through the window. There didn't seem to be anyone inside the room. Opening the door further, I slipped inside and closed back the sliding door. Walking over to one of the pillows strewn about the floor, I sat down and began collecting my thoughts.
'Let's take stock of the situation at hand. There's no one in the master bedroom, no one in the hallways, dining area seems empty, no sounds coming from the kitchen, playroom is unoccupied as well. What else. Hmm. All the lights in the house are turned off, but it's daytime so there's sunlight coming in from the windows. Hmm, the windows are opened but there's no wind because the curtains aren't moving.'
Looking around the playroom, everything seemed to be in place. Kiyoko's wooden blocks were stacked up neatly in one corner, Ojii-san's rattan chair was in its usual corner, Rumi's doll was on the table looking at me, the various books and scrolls were stacked up neatly on the bookshelf. Wait, what?
'Holy crap! That stupid doll scared the shit out of me. Ok, ok, it's just a doll. But it is currently in a standing position on that table over there while facing my direction. Go closer? Ahh I'm such a scaredy-cat. This is why I don't watch horror movies, I'm easily freaked out. Ok, you got this Genji. It's just a stupid doll, what could it possibly do to you? Oh, I don't know, come alive and start trying to kill me maybe? Ughhh, concentrate Genji! Let's just go over to take a closer look.'
Shuffling reluctantly towards the doll, with both my fists balled up and in front of my chest while preparing myself to scream and run out the room if the doll so much as blinked, I eventually got close enough to see that the doll wasn't in fact alive. Looking at it from the front, underneath the white lab coat the doll seemed to be wearing the same green sleeveless jacket with multiple pouches that those Naruto cosplayers I saw a few months ago were wearing. It even had the kunai holster on the right thigh and the open-toed shoes. The sunlight from the window behind me glinted off something metallic at the doll's forehead.
'Is this doll wearing a Naruto headband? I mean, its outfit looks like those cosplayers from before and it matches my memories of Naruto. Can't see what the symbol on the forehead protector is though. Ah, that's right! It's called a forehead protector! Let's see what ninja village you're from, little buddy.'
Reaching out with my right index finger, I lifted its blonde fringe out of the way. A swirl pattern with a pointed end on the left corner. It matched my memories of the symbol for Konohagakure, the Village Hidden in the Leaves, Hidden Leaf Village or Konoha for short.
'I wonder who this guy is? Rumi has a doll of him so he must be a famous character from Naruto, but I don't know who he is. Is he a character from after the time skip? Ah crap, I only saw the first part of the series but not the second part, Naruto: Shippuden. I just watched the highlights of some of the fights on YouTube and by highlights, I mean Anime Music Videos. As such, I have no idea who this character is!'
Hearing some noises coming from outside the window, I was drawn out of my thoughts and curiously looked in the direction of the window. Not being tall enough to see out of the window, yet too scared to actually make any noises by moving Ojii-san's rattan chair towards the window, I simply stood still and listened.
'It sounds like someone or something is moving through the snow. I can hear the squish-squish sounds of snow being moved but that doesn't sound like footsteps. Is it an animal of some kind? What kind of animal wonders around in late winter anyway? A bear that woke up early from its hibernation? Groundhog? Ah crap, I don't even know what animals are native to Japan. Does Japan have raccoons?'
After the sounds had stopped, I mustered up the courage to go take a peek. Deciding that making too much noise was a bad idea, I instead tip toed towards the window and decided to test out my body's balance and upper body strength. Placing some of Kiyoko's wooden blocks below the window sill in a four by four pattern, I built it up till it was four blocks high, then I climbed up on top of it.
Looking up towards the window sill, I then jumped for and grabbed onto the window sill with both hands, before pulling myself up as quietly as possible. Peeking my head over the window sill, I didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Just patches of snow mixed with mud here and there, after all it hadn't snowed in two days.
'Maybe I can guess what animal it is by its footprints, if there are any. Ok, lean forward just a little bit Genji. A bit more. Easy does it, don't fall out the window, that would be bad. Alright, let's see. No idea what animal it is, but it's definitely an animal of some kind. Too small to be a bear, which is a good thing. But I have no idea what kind of animal this is. Squirrel maybe? No, too big to be a squirrel. Unless it's a very big squirrel. Hmm. Dog? We don't have a dog though. Stray dog maybe?'
Contemplating the animal's species while my head was out the window, I detected some movement towards the very edge of my vision to my right. Turning my head towards the movement, that was when I saw them, in the distance by the small flower garden beside the dojo. Two to three, possibly four dozen white-furred rabbits. They looked rather large for rabbits, between a foot and a half to two feet in length, six to eight inches tall. There was a large bunch of them in a cluster, with a few individual rabbits and smaller groups of three to four by themselves away from the main cluster.
'Urm, where did these rabbits come from? What are they doing? They seem to either be just standing around or looking around for something. Are my family busy dealing with these rabbits? Is that where they all disappeared to? Will we get to eat rabbit meat?'
One of the rabbits seemed to have noticed me as it was looking directly at me now. It twitched those long ears of his and suddenly all the rabbits present turned to look in my direction. Then more and more rabbits started appearing from all over the compound. There were rabbits to my left and my right, around every building, all these rabbits covered the ground as far as my eyes could see. There were easily hundreds of them, if not a thousand or more.
'Uh oh, not good. I don't know what's going on but this definitely isn't a good thing. Why are they all looking at me?'
"Calm down Sayuri-chan, we will find him. I promise. There were no signs of anyone breaking into the house and all the guards and servants are accounted for. There's no evidence of foul play. Perhaps he simply woke up and decided to explore the grounds while we slept", Takeji said to his worried wife.
"Are you suggesting that our nine-and-a-half-month-old baby decided to go on a stroll around the estate by himself? In winter? For fun? Without a single person noticing? ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND!?" screamed a near-hysterical Sayuri.
Keeping his voice even and trying to sound as calm as possible, Takeji took a deep breath then said to his wife, "Tou-san, Kaa-san, your Kaa-san and the girls are all outside looking for him right now with the guards and the servants. Even Rumi and Kiyoko are trying to help by searching the main house. Please, you have to remain calm Sayuri-chan, panicking doesn't help anyone".
Sniffing before wiping the mucus away with a facial tissue, Sayuri turned her tear-filled swollen red eyes towards her husband, "He's just a baby! Who would want to take our baby? He hasn't even turned one yet! Oh God, is this one of those child kidnappings like what happened in Konoha? You remember what that Konoha shinobi said before he escorted you to the Capital last month? He mentioned that during the peace negotiations with Kumo, one of the Kumo shinobi kidnapped the Hyuga clan's baby heiress but they managed to get the baby back eventually. Did Kumo take our son?"
Patting his wife on her back in order to help keep her calm, Takeji replied, "According to shinobi-san, Kumo were after the baby's Byakugan eyes. I'm quite certain that our son does not have the Byakugan, or any other special eyes that I know of. The only special thing about him would be from my Kaa-san's heritage, but none of our four older girls have shown any signs of inheriting anything from my Kaa-san. The younger two have yet to develop chakra networks that are mature enough to tell, although Rumi is getting close. You'll be able to start teaching her the basic katas of the Soft Palm Style soon."
"Remain calm Sayuri-chan, we will find Genji-kun soon enough. I'm sure of it. Kaa-san even said that her seal perimeter was not breached. So, if someone didn't come in to take Genji-kun, then Genji-kun must still be on the estate somewhere. So, calm down and please stop crying, Sayuri-chan. We will find him. Everything is going to be ok. He's probably having the time of his life right now, thinking this is all one big game of hide and seek or something", Takeji said as he gave a small smile to his wife.
"If he hasn't been kidnapped and is actually playing hide and seek, that means we are going to have a really cheeky son when he grows up Takeji-san. And we can't scold him either, he hasn't even spoken his first words yet so he won't understand what we're saying. We should get your Kaa-san to create a location seal tag and wrap it around his wrist or ankle or something, so we know where he is at all times", Sayuri sniffed and wiped away some of the tears that were falling down her cheeks.
"I'm sorry but I can't help it Takeji-san, I keep thinking that some shinobi bastard has taken our son! I hope they didn't hurt him! Oh, my poor little Genji-kun!" Sayuri stuttered out as she began crying once more into her husband's chest.
Not really knowing what else to say, Takeji opted for embracing his wife in both arms while leaning his face on top of her head, giving the top of her head a quick peck.
"Why aren't we out there looking for him with the others, Takeji-san?" Sayuri whispered between sniffing back more mucus.
"Just in case he comes back to the main house, Sayuri-chan", Takeji said, 'or if a ransom note arrives via messenger bird', he thought to himself. Voicing those thoughts would not help improve his wife's current fragile emotional state, quite the opposite in fact.
'Someone has to remain calm and rational in these sorts of situations after all. I swear, if it turns out that someone did indeed kidnap you Genji-kun, I will hunt them down to the ends of the world. This is my promise to you Genji-kun, wherever you may be right now. An Amano always fulfills their promise to a loved one!' Takeji thought to himself, his steely eyes radiating a small amount of killing intent.
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