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This article, Building Bonds, is property of Kenji-Taichō. Permission is required to alter its content. |
It was now official. There was no way you’d convince Kenji to the contrary. His sensei, Shigeru Sarutobi, was an utter tyrant!
Kenji was seated in the far corner of a room without any windows and with only a single door. In that room was nothing but Harumi Amaterasu – and she was voicing her frustrations at being confined to such a small space with someone as quiet as Kenji was. It made for an annoying time and truth be told Kenji was close to snapping. Why had Shigeru done this? The thought had come and go so many times he didn’t really acknowledge it. He never said. He had merely taken both and thrown them in before locking the door and reinforcing it with earth release ninjutsu to prevent either of them forcing it. They could freeze it or super-heat it: nothing worked. So they sat… and steamed.
‘This is ridiculous,’ Harumi whispered.
Kenji mentally vowed that he’d strangle her if things continued. He certainly had the strength to do it, and soon he’d have the motivation. They’d already been in here long enough for him to have lost track of all notion of time and Harumi’s attitude wasn’t helping any.
‘That man is a tyrant!’ She scolded again.
Finally! Something they could agree on. But the way she paced coupled with the expression on hr face and the stubborn set of her shoulders made Kenji reconsider whether or not he’d bother breaking his silence.
She finally slumped to the floor. ‘You know… I don’t remember seeing you at the academy before… I don’t even remember you playing games with any of us when we where younger.’
‘… There weren’t many girls in the games I was made to play.’
His games had been played in Kirigakure – the land once feared as the Bloody Mist. In truth the reputation still held. The games where hard and brutalizing and diguised well their intent: to build a youngster from the grounds up into killing machines. A lot of the instructors practiced the “old ways”. There was daily games of “tag” and “hide-and-seek”, only you got a royal thumping if you where caught.
‘Made to play? What’s that supposed to mean?’
Kenji sighed. He dreaded where this conversation might lead. ‘… It means that when you where off playing tag or running around with blunted tools, I was playing with sharpened swords and kunai, in the type of hide-and-seek you dreaded being caught. Against my wishes.’
Harumi looked taken aback. ‘That’s barbaric!’
‘It’s called the Bloody… Forget about it.’ He was about to say “it’s called the Bloody Mist for a reason”. He needed to be careful now. People weren’t supposed to know about his connection to Kirigakure.
‘Eh? The Bloody… what? Come on, spill it!’
‘No.’
‘Please?’
‘… No.’
‘I won’t tell anyone. I promise!’ She was leaning towards him now with her eyes wide open and pleading.
‘Ugh! What part of no don’t you understand? Drop it!’
Sanada sipped a warm cup of tea. The home he was in was small but well maintained which he found somewhat surprising. He didn’t know a great deal about Kenji Nara or his mother but judging by what he’d heard of the Nara clan, some of them where renowned for their laziness. It gladdened him to see that he was wrong in this case.
‘Thank you for your hospitality, Ma’am.’
‘You’re quite welcome,’
The woman was Kaede Nara – mother of Kenji. She sported long black hair tied in a ponytail and wore a pair of black-framed glasses. Her clothes consisted of a thigh-length black skirt and a kimono-style top. Looking at her Sanada saw the resemblance between mother and son. Kenji for one shared his mother’s eyes.
‘Forgive me for being abrupt,’ he began hesitantly but polite all the same, ‘but I was wondering if I could ask you some questions about your son? We’ve been through a lot already as a team but I don’t really know either him or Harumi, and sensei has spirited them both off somewhere.’
Kaede took a set opposite him at the dining table with a cup of tea resting between her slim fingers. ‘That’s quite natural. There may come a day when you must place your life in his hands… though I suppose that time has come and gone for you both, hasn’t it? But ask.’
It certainly had. Without Kenji and Harumi he would likely have been killed by Itazura and Hageshi. ‘That’s true… First of all I’d like to discuss his history. He slips up now and again, and I never seen him around town until two years ago.’
‘… What I’m about to tell you mustn’t leave this room. I only tell you because secrets is something that can damn a team.’ Kaede replied. ‘Kenji, as you may have already guessed, wasn’t raised in Konoha. He was raised by his father in Kirigakure until only two years. There was an accident in training: Kenji killed his sparring partner with a sharpened blade, who was a close relative of the Sixth Mizukage. Kenji was to be executed but his father smuggled him across the border… and to me.’
Sanada was speechless! ‘You mean… he killed him? It goes a long way to explaining why he’s so reserved. Oh! I didn’t mean any offense.’
Kaede almost laughed. ‘What offense? You simply spoke the truth. Sanada, relax. I knew your uncle well if you recall. I also babysat you occasionally so please, don’t be so formal.’
‘Okay,’ he visibly relaxed. ‘But doesn’t that mean he’s in danger still?’
‘His father took care of that apparently,’ Kaede revealed. ‘Talk to Kenji about this. Let him know that I told you and why, and you’ll find he’ll open up. Right now Kenji struggles because there isn’t anyone he can truly open up to and confide in. Even with me he holds back.’
‘Not to be rude or anything but if you – his mother – can’t get him to confide in you, then what chance do I have?’
‘You’d be surprised how little a boy of Kenji’s age tells his mother. But friends are another matter… and Kenji never had many he could be himself with.’
‘How long do you intend to keep them in there?’
The asker of this question was Kentaro Yamanaka. The experienced Shinobi played with his long blond hair with one hand while fingering the white scarf he wore with another. Both had the look of habit about them.
‘Until they break down their walls,’ Shigeru replied.
‘You’re an evil man,’ Kentaro replied. ‘I still recall how you hounded poor Kenta. There aren’t many Akimichi who’d happily surrender a meal at the best of times, yet every time you entered the room poor Kenta bolted; leaving meal and all unfinished. If that isn’t intimidation then I don’t know what is.’
‘What can I say?’ Shigeru replied casually. ‘I am brilliant at what I do. He should’ve been happy I didn’t do to him what I did to you though.’
‘That wasn’t funny! You left me wrapped in bandages for three days out in the wilderness!’ Reminiscing with Shigeru was always painful. ‘But I digress. Send word to me when I’ll have free use of my interrogation room again, would you?’
‘Certainly,’
Kenji was close to snapping. All Harumi was talking about was girly stuff and how unresponsive he was to her topics of conversation. To top it all off she still wasn’t happy about him neglecting to reveal his past in greater detail. So he brought it hands to his face and inhaled sharply.
‘Gonna cry? At least you’ll be quiet, you crybaby.’
What? Oh, the stupid bitch! She wanted a reaction? She was going to get one. He got to his feet before immediately falling onto all-fours like some big feline. Even his hair started to stand on-end. His fingernails dug into the ground – leaving rend marks – and his eyes changed to those one would expect to see on a cat.
‘What do you know about me, eh!? Nothing! I was raised in Kirigakure, the land most once knew as the Bloody Mist. The expectation was immense and the drills where brutal. There’s only so many ways someone can deal with that: being quiet and reserved worked for me, but I won’t tolerate being insulted by an idiot girl like you!’
He regretted the outburst immediately. What was he doing? He calmed himself immediately before seating himself down where he had been before. ‘… You want to know about me? Well fine then. But it doesn’t leave this room.’
She was silent throughout the telling and only spoke up when he was finished. ‘So that’s why… I’m sorry. I didn’t know.’
‘You do now. But Harumi… how about we start over? Wipe the slate clean?’
She smiled then. ‘I think I’d like that.’