Shadow Child

Chapter 2

After a month I was already done with my life. Being an Infant sucked. I had little to no control over my body. It took me forever to do something as simple as turning over. And when I finally succeeded, I nearly suffocated on my pillow. Exactly for that reason I didn't have one anymore. But that didn't matter much, the mattress in my crib was so divinely soft, I wasn't so sure my parents got it legally.

"Oh, already awake?" I looked up and directly into the gray eyes of my mother, who was leaning over the lattice of the crib and placed a kiss on my forehead, before lifting me out of my extremely soft prison. Aiko and Hajime Jikan were the perfect parents. At least in my view. The best I could have wished for. They were the only hope in my current situation. Without them I probably would have already thrown myself out of my bed. Without them and the lattice. I trained my mussels every day by clenching my hand to a fist and opening it again. But I still couldn't hold anything properly. All in all, it was pretty frustrating. And I still knew very little about this world.

Mama, Aiko, carried me into the kitchen, where she took a bottle with baby milk before she sat down with me at the dining table. She couldn't breastfeed me, for whatever reason. I couldn't really ask, could I?

While drinking, I looked around as much as possible, but I couldn't see nor hear my father. I turned my head from the bottle, so I had my mouth free. "Baaa?" I said and immediately wanted to bash my head against a wall. Oh, how much I was looking forward to my first words. I even had a small list of what I wanted it to be. »Fuck« was very high up, just so my parents would ask themselves where I got the word from. Mama was dead set on keeping every kind of curse word away from my ears, which would make it even funnier.

"Hmm? Are you looking for your Papa?" I loved my Mama. She always knew what I wanted. Seriously, she was a saint. To answer her, I clapped my hands a few times before I covered my eyes with them.

"Ba," I said again. My father "taught" me that. He did it every evening when he tucked me into bed.

Aiko made a squeaking noise, probably because of my cuteness. I had my parents wrapped around my finger. And of course, I took full advantage of that.

"Your Papa is on a mission, honey. He'll be back in a few days," she explained, even though a normal baby wouldn't have understood that. "Papa needs to protect the Village, because he is a super strong Shinobi."

I perked up at that. The term Shinobi didn't mean anything to me, but in context with a mission and »protecting the Village«, I assumed it was something like a soldier. And if a Village needed soldiers, it had to be big. Mama took me grocery shopping with her a couple of times, but it was always the same route. Means I didn't see much of my new home. I just knew those weird stone faces, that were carved into the mountain. They were always there, watching. I didn't know their purpose, but I bet the view up there was stunning.

"Come on, little one. Today we're going to look around the village a little. It's about time you get to know Konoha. And how about we buy a new plant for your room?"

This woman could read minds and had given me the name of this place as a bonus. She was truly amazing.

Grinning widely, I squealed to voice my approval, which made her smile even wider. Aiko Jikan radiated such brilliant light; it was hard to look at her. I'd never seen a woman like her. She was gentle, caring, and so warm. I loved hugging her, or sleeping on her stomach, just listening to her heartbeat. It never failed to calm me down, especially after yet another nightmare. If someone dared to harm her — kill her, I would hunt them down and murder everyone they ever loved.

"I wanted to introduce you to the Yamanaka's anyway. They also had a daughter recently."

I cooed affectionately, while she placed the now empty bottle on the table and walked into my room with me on her arm. After dressing me a little warmer, she wrapped a baby sling around herself, in which I was placed. Unlike the last times, my face wasn't pressed against her chest, so I was actually able to see shit.