Tale of Our Love // Pucca

Chapter 2

The sound of the everyday chirping of the morning birds rang through the bamboo forest. The sun began rising up to meet the clouds, reflecting it's light on the forest and the one house in it's interior. At the same time, a young boy fluttered open his eyes to the wonderful morning awaiting his awakening.

Once his eyes were fully opened and his consciousness had completely returned, the boy sat up from his futon and rubbed his eyes to prevent them from itching any further. Though a crumb of his sleepiness was still present in him, he was able to sense his father approaching him slowly.

"Oh, Garu." His father greeted him politely. "I see you're awake. How was your sleep?"

"...I liked it." He responded, smiling softly while still rubbing his eyes with his hands.

"That's good. I'm still preparing breakfast. You can wait, right?"

"...Yeah."

He watched as his father began heading towards the kitchen. Garu and his father were the last ones left of their clan; the Akahato clan. Garu didn't know what much about had happened back then, but according to his father, the other members of their clan mysteriously disappeared into thin air, leaving no trace of their whereabouts.

Garu never even met his mother. He only based everything off of what his father had said. For such a young age, the ninja boy held such a strong knowledge. If he took his father's words into consideration, then his mother had died while giving birth to him.

His father was currently the head of the Akahato clan, and he always said that Garu was going to be the next leader once he either perishes or his reign comes to an end. But even as the head of the clan, with no one else to lead, Garu was always his main priority. Both as a father and as a leader.

Garu always wonders how it would've felt to have a mother. Like, he did... but he never even met her. Whenever he and his father head to town, he sees other kids having fun with their mother around them. He can't really help but wonder how it feels like.

Because he never had women or girls around him since the beginning of his childhood, he was very nervous around one. His father taught him many things; respecting women being one of them. Even so, the difference between girls and boys confuses him slightly.

On top of that, he can't really understand how romance works, especially because he has never seen his father and mother kiss or cuddle like other children do. He only bases romance off of what he sees in children's books or cute manga that he finds.

He assumes that a girl is a shy person, someone who the boy always needs to protect. But even so, even if he did understand romance, he wasn't really interested in it. He'd rather become a strong ninja like this father rather than someone who constantly kisses girls to flirt with them.

Considering how there weren't many people around him when he first came into the world, Garu was always so shy around people, and whenever someone calls him cute as he hides behind his father's back, he feels his cheeks turning into a very bright cherry red.

Even so, there were people who Garu eventually became close with. To be precise, they were the ones who opened up to him, and it took him a few days before he finally got over his shyness and opened up to them. However, he was still modest and bashful towards other people.

These people—who Garu opened up to—were three friends who are considered to be inseparable. Garu eventually became a part of their squad once he opened up to them. These people were Abyo Park, Ching Huang, and Tobe Kurokage. They were all ninjas, but Tobe was the only one who was a part of a clan.

Tobe's clan consisted of him, his family, and other ninjas that are completely dressed in black. If Garu were to be completely honest, he would admit that they all looked the same and it was literally impossible to tell the difference. However, he figured that saying that in front of Tobe's face would be rude, so he just kept it to himself.