𝑷𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒆 || 𝘯𝘢𝘳𝘶𝘵𝘰, 𝘯𝘦𝘫𝘪 𝘩.

❁ 𝑭𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝑳𝒂𝒔𝒕 𝑮𝒊𝒇𝒕

Just as I was leaving the gate, an arm wraps around my shoulder making me jump. "Hey Miki-chan!" The blond grins at me. "Hey Naruto, what's up?" He shrugs and lets go of me. "Nothing much- Hey, didn't you abandon me in the courtyard?!" We stand there for a second before we both run. I jump up high and land onto one of the buildings to take a shortcut to my house, I can still hear him shout over and over about how he's going to kill me when he catches me.

I turn to stick my tongue out at him and it makes him even angrier. I jump down from the buildings as soon as I spot the giant maple tree a few yards behind my house. I slow down into a walk and side step him as he attempts to tackle me, but ends up crashing down on the floor. He groans as I offer him a hand, swatting it away as he wipes his mouth. "Why are you so fast?!" He whines but that quickly goes away once he spots mama watering the garden beds. "Mama!" He shouts running again. "And how do you have so much stamina. . . we just ran a mile." I mutter to myself.

Mama looks up from the sudden noise and breaks into a wide grin. "Naruto!" She waves and laughs as he crashes into her, wrapping his arms around her torso. "How have you been, Amai?" She pats his head na she pulls away with stars in his eyes, holding his fisted hands in front of his chest like a child. "I've been good! But Miki-chan left me to die back at school! She threw me under the bus!" He whined before pointing back at me. "We were going to be late for class." I said, slamming my fist into his head. Playfully, of course. "Ouch!" He groans dramatically, whining to my mom.

I step into the house and close the door behind me. Akino is sat on the ground with his coloring tools. "Oh hey mama-" He looks up and he smiles. "Nee-chan!" He jumps up with a squeal and hugs me tight. I drop my bag and hug him. "Hey, otouto." I mutter and he giggles. "Did nee-chan have fun today?" He asks once we pull apart. He brings me to the couch where I take my shoes off. "Yeah, I made a new friend. I think." He 'oo's' and wiggled on the couch. He played his head on my lap and drew whatever on my leg. "Can nee-chan bring her new friend home?" He looks up at me with his big teal colored doe eyes and I melt. "Sure, maybe on the weekend." He hums and wraps his arms around my waist.

The door opens and both Naruto and mama step inside, seeming to talk about something exciting. Akino spots them and jumps up again. "Nii–chan?!" He gasps and runs and hugs him, and so does Naruto. "Akino!!!" He shouts and they do a little sentimental hug that brings a tear to mamas eye. "Okay guys, that's enough." I say. Not to ruin the moment, but they kinda looked weird. They both glare at me and huff, muttering about me being mean. "I hope you live in an attic when you're older." Naruto says, forming an 'L' with his index finger and thumb and pointing it at me. I open my mouth to say something but then i stop. The attic? Didn't I find something in there last night?

I just shrug and get up to go to my room. I enter the room and move towards my closet, the object I found yesterday was hidden in there. I remember when I found it. Mama had asked me if there was a cookbook for desserts in the attic and asked me to get it. When I got in there, I looked through random boxes with a flashlight and came across a book. It had a brown leather cover with a red rose pin that kept it closed. I blew away any dust that had collected over the four years we had lived in this house. My eyes widened when I red the cover." 𝙰𝚔𝚒𝚢𝚊𝚖𝚒 𝙲𝚑𝚞𝚞𝚎'𝚜 𝙹𝚘𝚞𝚛𝚗𝚊𝚕 " it had read. My mother kept it? She kept my father's journal? Why? I thought at the time.

When I put the book to the side, I immediately found the cookbook and left the attic. I put the book away in my room before giving the cookbook to mama.

Years ago, back when I was about four or five, I think I could remember my father had been writing in something when I had asked him to play with me. My heart clenched at the thought. I miss my dad, I miss him a whole lot. Pulling the book out of a drawer I brought it to the window seat and sat down. Running my hand over the cover, I untied the rose clip and flipped to a random page.

"𝐃𝐚𝐲 𝟓𝟗𝟑;

𝐓𝐨𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐭. 𝐈 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐚 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐡 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐎𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐮, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐮𝐞. 𝐇𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐛𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐤, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐈 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐞𝐟𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐢𝐦. 𝐃𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐛𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐲 𝐝𝐨𝐣𝐮𝐭𝐬𝐮. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐧 𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐄𝐲𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐑𝐞𝐟𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬. 𝐎𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐮, 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐳𝐲 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬, 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐥 𝐩𝐮𝐫𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐬. 𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐨𝐧, 𝐈'𝐥𝐥 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐧𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐲 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐬. "

My father wrote in beautiful calligraphy, that it was a bit hard to decipher. I read over what seemed like an intro for a diary, then a sentence stood out. . I furrowed my eyebrows. Hanshagan? What was that? I knew it meant Reflective Eye, but just what exactly was it? I read around the book for the little notes he put onto the side but I got nothing. But I did get a name I recognized. Orochimaru. Why did the Snake Sannin want my father's eye? I flipped the page but I got nothing. I kept flipping around until I got to a random page, #700.

It was a note. . . to me?

┊┊┊┊ ➶ ❁۪ ｡˚ ✧

*Otouto : the Japanese term for 'younger brother'

*Hanshagan : the Chuue Clans' dojutsu. A black iris with a rectangle for the pupils, resembling a mirror with two black dots on either side of the iris, in the sclera.

*Orochimaru : The Snake Sannin; one of the three Legendary Sannin; known for betraying Konoha for the Akatsuki; then betraying the Akatsuki for his own reasons and becoming a mad scientist who experiments on whoever and whatever.