❝Speak❞ - A Memoir (Book 1)

10 - Secrets and Lies

Chapter 10

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Weeks passed and I soon learned that the third Hokage had passed on. I didn’t really know him well, so I didn’t really feel obliged to cry at his funeral. Others wept and shed an immeasurable amount of tears, but my eyes didn’t leak once. Not even once. Through the uncountable times I had cried for the silliest things in my short lifetime, I couldn’t find it in my heart to shed one tear. Not even one.

I had wanted to skip it, but when Kakashi told me that it was because of him that I wasn’t still in the hands of the scary scar-faced man, also known as Ibiki; I had no choice but to at least attend the funeral of the man who freed me from interrogation.

I was relieved after the funeral and I could go back to the safety of home where no one was out to get me. At least that’s what I thought.

I remember thinking that it was weird how things change within the blink of an eye. Before you even finish blinking, the world had gone through its biggest change yet, and all because you blinked. Little did I know, the world was yet to go through another big change; and this time, it was I who blinked.

It happened not long after the Hokage’s funereal. I don’t remember the exact day, but I do remember that Kakashi hadn’t exactly been home for as much as he used to be. Then again he could’ve been working on the village with the rest of the villagers. It was a thought; a thought that didn’t last long.

That day, I went grocery shopping for the needed items to make food in the house, when I saw Kakashi walking toward the extra-large Hokage building. Since I hadn’t been seeing him often, I decided to follow him to see what he had been doing outside the house. I would regret that decision, whether I believed it or not at that moment.

I followed him inside the building and through several hallways before he went inside a room that I couldn’t enter without being seen. Thankfully, I could hear the conversation from behind closed doors. It went a little bit like this, seeing as I can’t remember the exact details:

“Well, what’re we going to do with the girl??”

“You mean Ririn.” said Kakashi.

“Of course, who else would I mean? Since the Hokage’s gone, we don’t want something to happen with her do you?”

“Nothing’s going to happen; Kakashi’s got her under control”

A person sighs; “she doesn’t need to be controlled”

“Sure, whatever Kakashi, even you don’t know what she’s capable of!! She might as well kill us all!!”

“That’s exactly why the Hokage put you in charge of her, so if anything happens, there’s someone there to tame it”

After that, I couldn’t bear to listen any longer. I was looked at as a danger to Konoha. I was never wanted, and the only reason I was with Kakashi was so he could stop me if I happened to lose my temper or something. Just that conversation was enough for my eleven year old mind to understand that I was never invited, let alone wanted in Konohagakure.

I honestly never thought I would have to run again. I also never thought that Kakashi never asked to take care of me. To put it simply, I was devastated.

I didn’t have to run; no one was telling me to but I felt that if I wasn’t wanted, then why would I stay?? Whether I liked it not, I would be leaving again; leaving Konoha.