5 5: Walking And Talking

As usual, time passed.

Seija was now almost 3 years old, and much had happened during the last 22 months or so. For starters, her chakra had reached new levels of annoying for her poor parents. Her wind affinity awoke on the evening of her second birthday, which was when they tried to let her hold a blunt butter-knife to cut a small cake with. And of course, her chakra flared right as she ungracefully swung the blade down, cutting both the cake and the plate under it in half.

So far, that probably meant that 4 of the 5 basic elements, earth, lightning, fire, and wind, had a high level of affinity within her. Of course, anyone who knew how to wield chakra could use Jutsu from any element. But it was always easier to learn and use the ones the the user has an affinity for.

Now, Himiko and Ryoku weren't really sure if her affinity was actually that much higher than normal. It was her chaotic chakra network that caused her chakra to occasionally flare like that. For all they knew she might only have a normal affinity with them, and a weak affinity with water, which would explain why it hadn't shown up yet during what they've started calling 'chakra-flare incidents.'

And they thanked their lucky stars that a Kekkei Genkai hadn't shown up yet. They didn't want to think about their daughter spontaneously producing lava or acid in the middle of the night. The occasional fire in the bedroom was bad enough already.

But soon, just a couple of years away now, Seija should be smart enough to start learning how to control her chakra. She was now just about able to walk on her own, though she sometimes needed to lean on something if she was feeling tired. And she could talk! Barely... just a few words at a time. And she didn't really understand most of them yet.

"Mama! Dog!"

"No Seija we aren't stopping to pet the dog."

"Awwwww..."

Himiko shrugged off her daughter's pleading gaze and kept walking. She was finally putting that Hyuga etiquette training to good use, almost a decade after she left Konoha.

"Today we're going to visit a friend of the family who had a child of her own almost two years ago now."

"Baby?"

"Yes Seija, he's still a baby for now, but he'll catch up to you soon."

"Boring." The child pouted.

"Maybe so, Seija, but you might as well meet him now while the weather's still fine. We don't get many days like this around here."

"Mhm."

"Good. I'll get you something nice on the way back from the park."

"Mask?!"

"*sigh* No, not a mask. I really don't understand your obsession with that thing, Seija. I'll buy you some sweets, how about that."

"Hmmmmm... Ok!"

'Honestly, this girl... we let her into the basement one time and the first thing she does is get attached to her father's old Anbu mask.' Himiko lamented.

Their basement was a dangerous place for any child to be, let alone one that sometimes sets stuff on fire, so they never usually let her go down there. It contained all of the scrolls, weapons, equipment and money that they stole from both Danzo's underground lab and from the Hyuga clan compound on the day that they left Konoha behind them for good. Naturally, they didn't have time to break into the really high security stuff like the A-class Jutsus or higher, nor did they think they would truly get away if they stole anything too valuable. But one of the things they did steal were a few crates of explosive sealing tags. Which were specifically what they didn't want little 'fire hands' Seija to go anywhere near.

The Anbu mask was completely blank, just a plain white ceramic mask with glass-filled holes for the eyes and a Seal on the inside of the nose and mouth to let clean air through. Their daughter thought it was the greatest thing she'd ever seen though, and before they knew it she was carrying it around all day. Obviously, they couldn't let her just go outside holding a mask like that in broad daylight, so they've permanently restricted her from entering the basement until she's old enough to stop setting things on fire.

"Ah, there they are! Look."

"Baby. Small."

"Yes, that is how all babies are, Seija. You were like that too."

"No."

"Yes you were. In fact, you still are. He will probably out-grow you in a few years. Boys are often taller than girls, you know."

"No! Tall!"

"We shall see, little one. Hey! Fuso!"

Fuso, the red-haired mother waiting at the park for Himiko and Seija to arrive, turned around to face her. Her similarly red-haired child was seated in a stroller in front of her, sleeping peacefully.

"There you are Himiko! You're late!"

"As if! There aren't any clocks out her for either of us to check, you know."

At that statement, Fuso pulled a pocket watch out of the small bag that was hanging off one of the stroller's handles.

"Six minutes, Himiko! The watch doesn't lie."

"Ugh... I forgot you have that gaudy old thing. Fine. You win this time, Fuso. Anyways, why don't you introduce me to the little guy? My husband's already seen him at the clinic with Ise of course but I wasn't there for that."

"Aha! Well then, say hello to my darling Nagato!"

Seija felt... something... when she heard that name. But she couldn't really put her finger on it, nor was she smart enough to even know what a 'feeling' was in the first place. So instead of thinking about it, she decided to just poke him instead.

Himiko sucked in a breath when she did that, but was relieved to find that her daughter was being extra gentle and that Nagato didn't burst into flames, or split in half, or get blasted away, or get crushed under an invisible weight, or-

"Baby!"

Thankfully Himiko was broken out of that morbid train of thought by Seija's timely exclamation. Fuso crouched down next to the stroller to talk to the little girl.

"Yep! But not for long, he's 21 months old now!"

"Twe... eh?"

Himiko chuckled, "Haha, sorry Fuso, but I think you'd be hard pressed to find any child younger than three years old who can count past ten! I'm surprised little Seija here even made it that far, to be honest."

The parent's conversation continued as they walked around the park. At around the halfway point, almost an hour into the conversation they stopped at a bench to let Seija's legs rest for a bit. During that time, she was mostly quiet. She was staring at the nametag sewn into the baby's outfit.

'Nagato... Nagato... Nagato...' It repeated in her mind every time she read the tag over and over. She felt like it was... important? But she had no idea why. The thought was now firmly present in her mind even as they stood up and continued their walk. Nagato, for his part, most just slept through the whole thing. Even as Fuso accepted some last-minute parenting advice from Himiko and they parted ways for the day she was still thinking about it.

"Hey... Seija. You haven't said goodbye yet. Say goodbye to Miss Fuso."

"Hm? Ah! Bye-Bye Miss Fuso!"

Fuso had a good laugh at Seija's startled reaction before waving and walking off with Nagato's stroller.

"You look like you're thinking hard, Seija. Deciding which sweet you want me to get you? You were very good today so I'll get you two different ones."

"Yaaaaay~!"

Thankfully, sweets made an excellent distraction from existential thoughts.

Little did she know she would be seeing Nagato more frequently as the days would go by. Their two families were quickly becoming closer and closer as they chatted to and interacted with each other more and more. It certainly helped that most of them worked in the same clinic.

And little did she know that Himiko was having strange thoughts too. On a whim, she had quickly covered her face with her hands, acting like she was just fixing her hair, and had activated her Byakugan. Looking into the distance behind them where Fuso was heading she found them arriving just outside their isolated home.

'That boy... I swear there's something different about his eyes.'

She deactivated her Byakugan and masterfully hid all traces that she was acting strangely. She needn't have bothered; her daughter was too busy thinking about sweets and there was nobody else around on this particular street to see the veins on her face expand. Sighing to herself she took Seija by the hand and led her to the only confectionary store in town.

'Whatever, I'm sure that they must know about it already. We already know that Fuso and Ise have a lot of secrets. I'm pretty sure Ise dyes his hair, and neither of them claim to have any family names either. I understand them. It's not like I haven't been hiding my identity as well.'

And so she discarded her thoughts as well, at least for now.

Time passed once more in their small village on the outskirts of Amegakure.