"LET YOUR CHAOS EXPLODE."

At first, the words didn't really register in his mind. Rai wasn’t someone who had a low alcohol tolerance, but he had been too lost in thought to really pay much attention to his surroundings. And that included noticing that someone was actually talking to him.

Tomoe could only stare for a moment, as though trying to figure out a particularly difficult puzzle. In reality, she couldn’t tell if he was serious or just...Stupid.

 𝓲𝓷 𝓮𝓿𝓮𝓻𝔂 𝔀𝓪𝔂 

      𝓫𝓾𝓽 𝓸𝓷𝓮

Pros: She’d be able to get out of this stuffy room and eat food that wasn’t soup or weirdly flavored pudding.

Cons: If he was feeding her, he’d want something in return, because that was just how adults worked. And that something probably had to do with the questions the first guy had been asking her.

To be fair, some of the questions weren’t that bad. Her age, what her name was, where her parents were. Easy- she was almost ten (the truth), her name was Mihoko (mostly the truth), and her parents were dead (her mother sure was, but hell if she knew anything about her father).

But then there were other things. Where was she from, why did she run away, did she have any family in the village, did she come from another country, had she been trained in the shinobi arts, how long had she been in the forest-- on and on and on. If it weren’t for the fact that she knew her family wouldn’t bother reporting her missing, she would’ve been worried they had figured out who she was. That someone had recognized her. As it stood now, though, she was more or less sure they thought she was a botched attempt at a spy or something.

“...Curry. I’ll eat with you if it’s curry.” Mihoko eventually decided, the stubborn look on her face suggesting that she wouldn’t be persuaded otherwise. There was a saying that beggars couldn’t be choosers, but she wasn’t the one who needed something in this case. She was the one who might have something they wanted.

That being said, Tomoe didn’t feel very guilty at all. As much as she wasn’t looking forward to being scolded for this once she got home, it wasn’t anything she would apologize for. Injured or not, she wasn’t helpless- was she just supposed to turn a blind eye and let those merchants get robbed? That would’ve gone against everything she was taught.

Or he hadn’t turned into a nomad who was constantly searching for his lost family, anyway.

“... I don’t know if I can answer that without coming off as rude, mister,” the Uzumaki hesitantly replied after a few moments, even giving a soft laugh. For all they knew, soup really was the only thing his new shinobi friend was going to be able to cook with any type of success, but he didn’t want to sound discouraging, “Though it’s nice to know you plan on using a sickly, dying man who can’t run away as a guinea pig for whatever it is you come up with.”

He was only teasing, really, forcing himself to his feet soon enough. And while the world did spin for a good few seconds -was it spinning or was he swaying- he managed to not collapse all of a sudden. Whatever had been in that soup of Ari’s had made him feel better than he had before, that was for sure, but he was still more or less sick. Not nauseous, but he had a fever, or at least he’d guess as much if he was trying to self-diagnose himself.

▬▬ι══════════════════════════════════════════ι▬▬

It’s right about now that Kono-- Mihoko was starting to regret trying to sneak out of the hospital. It wasn’t like she was trying to run away or anything, that would’ve defeated the entire purpose of running away to Konoha to begin with, but a person could only stay in their hospital bed for so long. Besides, she wasn’t stupid. She knew full and well that they weren’t keeping her in there because she was still sick (because she wasn’t) as much as they were waiting for someone to come and deal with her.

Unfortunately for the little blonde, while she had managed to escape out of her window, she hadn’t made it all of ten feet before some man had just appeared in front of her without warning. He was probably as amused with her escape attempt as she was with having it ruined, but that must have been enough to catch their attention since he’d all but dragged her over to this place soon afterward.

‘This place’ being some stupid too small room that had her picking at the freshly healed scar on her palm in an attempt to stop from being so jittery.

“I am not telling you anything.”

And Mihoko meant it, too. They had been trying for probably over an hour to get her to speak, to tell them anything- even just her name- but she’d refused thus far. And this had been going on long enough that the stranger’s patience was likely running out as much as her own was, or at least she’d assumed as much when he left and came back with another person.

If they thought numbers could intimidate her, they were wrong. The new guy didn’t even look very impressive- all he’d gotten from her when being brought in was a rather dismissive once-over before her attention went right back to the other shinobi in the room, brown eyes as sharp and wary as ever.

But then,

“Would you feel better if we tried talking over some nice food?”

Now that, admittedly, got the small girl to look back over to their new ‘companion’, pausing right before her fist looked out. For a second, it even looked like the idea had softened her up. Until she opened her mouth, anyhow,

“I’m not five. I know you’re trying to bribe me.”

If she was unimpressed before, her opinion of the new shinobi seemed to lower even more after that. And yet she didn’t immediately dismiss him again as she had last time, instead simply observing for a few moments. After months of being in the hospital and being on weird diets because of how messed up her body had been, offering real food ...was a better start than any of the other adults had managed.

However, rumor has it that only three of those children were biologically his, as his wife was allegedly a woman who took visitors late at night when her husband was working. There was never any proof of this, as paternity tests weren’t a thing and no one who was worth any merit actually caught her in the act, so no punishment or divorce followed. Nevertheless, it was an open secret that even the Daimyo himself was aware of.

The man was never outwardly cruel towards any of his children in particular, but he did show favor to some more than others, and of those he favored, Aratani was the one he loved most. From a young age, she had been close to her father more-so than her mother, and that never changed. It caused a rift between her and her siblings as they were jealous of the attention and favoritism she got, but none could truly hate her. She was a kind girl, the one it was nearly impossible to dislike.

Aratani was even allowed privileges that should have gone to one of her older brothers- sitting in during official meetings, helping her father make decisions about political situations, writing diplomatic letters. She was seen plenty around court and by the shinobi that visited the Daimyo’s estate and became a rather popular person due to that.

Yet as antisocial as Takemikazuchi might be, it is precisely because the woman was a stranger introducing him to something new that he watched her with rapt attention. He wasn’t the friendly sort, but he soaked up information like a sponge in water, regardless of the fact that she suspected it wouldn’t mix well with his own way of sealing due to it being specialized more for her. A person never knew when any kind of knowledge could become suddenly useful in the future.

“...You’re a very unique person.” 

That was probably the closest the grey-haired man would ever get to giving a compliment, but as stilted as they might have sounded, the words were genuine. This was the first time he’d seen someone use nature chakra with seals in such a manner, and it was likely his first time seeing healing chakra- or any kind, really- of that color. Even his own lightning nature was blue.

“Some siblings just don’t get along with one another,” the Uzumaki managed after a few moments of uneasy silence, giving a tired smile, “My little sisters got into fights with me all the time, and they were even worse with one another. It’s just a family thing, I guess.”

Granted, he and his sisters had never been that bad. They just acted like kids were prone to- stealing one another’s things, tearing up each other’s toys, generally being a nuisance to everyone. It was only natural that with four children who had their mother’s bloodline in them, there would be plenty of fights going on at any given time. It had just about driven their parents crazy, trying to corral all of them and instill some sort of manners and ‘proper’ behavior, but they didn’t have as broken as a family as he suspected the shinobi across from him had. Even with all of their fights and trouble-making, they had loved one another fiercely, and at the end of every day had more or less forgotten they were even fighting to begin with.

Of course, that had been years ago. Long enough that he had lived more of his life without them than with, and for all he knew, they could have become totally different people. Mio could be some sweet housewife, Nozomiko a sullen shinobi, Shizu an upbeat businesswoman. There was every chance that they didn’t even remember who he was- they’d been just about to turn five when he was taken. And there was also every chance that they were no longer alive. He’d learned first hand what happened to people with ‘exotic’ bloodlines, and his sisters had always had more of their mother in them than he did.

Tagged by: Stole it from Ghost! @historias-multorum​

Tagging: Make this into a dash game for the funny results, please

“Wrong on both accounts.” 

He’s less than impressed.

For such a loud mouth, Rakurai sure is quiet.

“I’m a top with every person, thank you.”