Naruto: Sound Sisters

Chapter 11 - Disconnected Hearts

A strange chill circled the windowless, cement covered room as the mysterious looking Suna ninja walked around the square, wooden table. Two others stood guard by the door they had all gone through. The wooden chair the young woman sat on felt rather uncomfortable. She was in mid-shiver when her little boy came to her with a toy bear, giggling at it. She smiled at him and caressed his hair. He then ran around the room, dancing with his new stuffed bear without a care.

"Let us begin." The Suna interrogator's voice was low with a sort of monotone sound. He stood, firmly, a few feet away from her and gripped his wrist behind his back.

"What is your and your son's names, ages and home location?"

"My name is Yasuko Maeda. Formerly Tanaka. My son's name is Hikori Maeda and he is four years old. I am twenty-seven years old and we currently reside in a small home on the outskirts of the Kusa village." She tried to speak strongly but found herself taken aback as her son stopped in front of the interrogator. The little boy shook the stuffed bear at the tall man and smiled innocently at him, then continued walking with his bear.

"What is your relation to Atu, Tenchi, Jun, and Akiko?" The Suna ninja looked down at Yasuko, holding back a look of disdain. She looked up at him confused.

"Or should I say...", he paused to look over some sheets of paper on the table,"Takeshi, Kiyoshi, Imao and Imai Tanaka?" He looked back at her, showing slight annoyance.

"They are my family. I am the eldest child of Takeshi Tanaka. The rest are my siblings." She gave a weak smile as though trying to confirm her words to him.

"I hope you understand that everything you say and do here will be held against you and your family. So, I want you to tell me honestly about the incident that took place during the Kazekage's wedding and anything relating to it - meaning your family's past and up to this moment." The interrogator gave her a grim look and proceeded to grab a clipboard with blank pages and a pencil.

"I understand." Yasuko nodded and looked over at her preoccupied son. She smiled weakly at him and only hoped he wouldn't catch any of what she was about to say.

"I was very young when my father and mother decided to move into a strange and small underground city- somewhere near the rice village. We lived there for several years. My mother became pregnant there. I remember feeling ecstatic at becoming an older sister to my future sibling since there weren't many children there but... after some time, I started to think that maybe having a sibling wouldn't be so great. The reason being, my mother was constantly ill because of her pregnancy. I didn't understand why." She paused and looked off sadly.

"I recall a doctor with long black hair, pale skin, and strangely yellowed eyes would tend to her during her "check-ups". Every time my mother would come out of the doctor's room she would be weak and pale. Sometimes my father would go with her to help but either way, I had to care for her as best as I could for various months. I always found it strange that instead of getting better, she would be weaker after every doctor's appointment." Yasuko paused again in order to calm herself from the slight anxious feeling of recalling past events.

"My father, at the time, was working many hours during the day and we would rarely see him. Though when we did, my parents would argue. My mother would plead to leave the underground city but, unfortunately, my father was determined to stay and so it went. On a cold winter evening, my mother gave birth, slightly before her due date, to two little girls, which was unexpected. Unfortunately, one of the babies was very ill while the other was full of life and thriving. My father, though disappointed that neither was a boy, named the lively one Imai and oddly enough I recall him giving the baby a strange look of pride and took her to my mother. My other sister, Imao,- named by my mother - was quickly tended to by other nurses and taken away. Unfortunately, my mother was too weak from the birthing process and passed away a couple day later. My father then gave me the responsibility to care for my sisters as he had to work to keep food on the table. I turned ten that year." She looked up, teary eyed, and watched as the Suna interrogator wrote on the clipboard. An unwilling whimper resonated through her throat though she tried to control the overwhelming feeling of grief.