The silence was exquisite for the Uchiha girl, just sitting at her desk slowly flipping through the pages of her other-self’s journal, trying to glean any last bit of differences between her previous life as a boy and this new one.
Not long had passed since the team had split up, finding out their reporting time for their first team meeting by reading Naruko’s own journal. Sakura had admitted that recording something like that was fortuitous but still gave Naruko an earful about the meaning of operational security. The blonde’s complaints about it being past her writing it down fell on deaf ears, much to Sachiko’s hidden humor.
Either way, Naruko had gone off to sulk, or whatever she did by herself, in her own room and Sakura leaving not long after while trying to hide an odd parting glance.
So far, after rereading the black covered journal again, Sachiko had found not as many differences between her boy and girl personalities as she expected.
Oh, there were differences in mannerisms and journal entries, but the onyx eyed girl put them down to her mother having survived and then moving in with the Uzumaki family after the massacre of their clan. Each entry and the extra information hidden between the lines were studied and memorised by the young Uchiha heiress.
A knock at her door broke her out of her studies, causing her to twist in her chair to look towards it. “Yes?”
“Sa-chan, can I come in?”
The unexpected but inconceivably sorely missed voice was immediately identified, bringing a smile to Sachiko’s lips. “It’s unlocked, Okaa-chan.”
Accepting her daughter’s implied permission, Mikoto opened the bedroom door, letting Sachiko take in the sight of her once dead mother once more. The elder Uchiha woman still had her shiny raven hair long and loose down to her lower back, the dark onyx eyes full of kindness and a loving smile on her lips for her child. She wore a deep purple blouse and slacks, though, instead of the tan housedress Sachiko remembered her wearing the last time she saw her alive.
“Kushina told me you wanted to talk.” Mikoto explained her visit, moving over to sit lightly on the edge of her daughter’s dark blue bed.
“Yes, I did, Okaa-chan.” The raven haired girl answered lightly, while silently adding, ‘For all those years.’
“Well, what’s on your mind, Sa-chan?” The woman yielded the floor to her daughter, letting the younger Uchiha dictate the flow of the talk.
Physically turning her chair to fully face her recently, to Sachiko, resurrected mother, the girl weighed the benefits and consequences of her planned actions one final time. After nearly a full minute of silent contemplation, her mother patiently waiting, Sachiko nodded to herself before raising her eyes to her mother’s onyx orbs.
“”The spirit of flame flows through our blood.” She intoned, her higher pitched girl voice carrying the weight of her words.
Mikoto blinked as she heard the first part of their family trust code spoken by her daughter. Whatever the young girl had on her mind, it was obviously bigger and more important than her mother had thought. “We are one with it, like the river with the forest.”
A shiver went up Sachiko’s spine at hearing the correct response, but still she continued. “I may lose sight of the world around me.”
“But the spirit of flame will always bring you home.” Mikoto answered, her eyes wary but filled with concern. “Sachiko… what’s wrong?”
“Mother…” Sachiko formally said, voice thick with apprehension. “What I’m about to say will seem… unbelievable, but it is the truth as I know it.” Seeing her mother silently nod, the Genin paused for a moment to correctly form the words in her mind. “This before this morning, this world did not exist.”
Mikoto blinked in shock and confusion at hearing that statement, obviously not expecting anything close to those words coming out of her daughter’s mouth.
Nodding in understanding with her mother’s expression, Sachiko further explained. “Due to a Kami, the world was remade this morning; changing Naruko and myself from male to female and…” She let out a breath before almost whispering, “And bringing our mothers back to life.”
“That… that…” The black haired woman tried to respond to her daughter’s statement, but found herself speechless. Placing a steadying hand to the side of her head while giving it a slow shake in disbelief, she finally found her voice. “Bring us back to life?”
Sachiko nodded once more while swallowing thickly. “I don’t know about Kushina-san but… but you were murdered by Itachi's hand, just like father. I was the only survivor that day.”
“You do understand how unbelievable this all sounds.” Mikoto said in a statement, not even questioning it as she saw the seriousness on her daughter’s face as well as understanding now why she had resorted to the trust phases.
“It’s because of that that I needed to tell you, Kaa-chan.” Sachiko said with a breath and a shake of her head. “Naruko, Sakura and I are the only ones who remember our old lives and how things used to be. There’s just too many chances for either you or Naruko’s mother to feel something off and then you will lose trust in us.” Locking pleading eyes with her mother’s deep onyx, Sachiko whispered out, “You needed to know… I can’t lose you again, Kaa-chan!”
Not really sure what she felt of this world shattering information her daughter just gave to her, Mikoto decided to fall back on what she did know and that was her daughter needed her right now. Beckoning her daughter over with a hand, she received the hesitant girl in a comforting hug and held her. Feeling the young girl return the hug while softly crying into her shoulder, Mikoto whispered soothing words, all the while wondering…
‘How the hell am I supposed to explain this to Kushina?’
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(Posted Sat, 20 Sep 2014 21:29)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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