Kakanaru: The pain behind Naruto's mask

15

I woke up to a tapping on my window. I got up from bed and pulled aside the curtains. Ella was back, and she brought me letters from both Tsunade and Jeraiya. They both said pretty much the same thing. They said they had business in the leaf and would be returning sometime in the next week. I read between the lines and knew they wanted to meet Kakashi. Ella disappeared back to whatever realm she came from. Sighing, I put all of my boxes in a seal that I slipped into a pouch on my waist. I only keep four seals tattooed on my body, and the rest I draw on paper I keep in a pouch. I left the apartment to go to the Hokage to get my pass. All people who live outside the village are required to have a pass. That way they don't have to worry about signing in or out and can move freely. When I arrived, there was a large crowd in front of the office. They were holding signs that said, 'Don't let the demon near our Fourths house' as well as, 'The Namikaze-Uzumaki family house is impenetrable. Let's see the fox burn.' They would see the truth soon enough. They would probably try to pretend they had nothing to do with this protest. But I would know. Thanks to my photographic memory, I remember the faces of any who have ever wronged me. Rather than going through the window, like I usually would with a crowd like this, I decided to walk through it. We were close enough to the Hokage building that they couldn't harm me, but to be petty I used my Hirashin. It left nothing but a yellow blur as I rested my hand on the doorknob. Glancing back, I knew that soon my fear of crowds would be a thing of the past. I entered the Hokage's office, once again ignoring the glaring receptionist. When I got there, I was in for a surprise. "Old lady! Pervy sage!" They both looked at me. "You got bigger!" Tsunade exclaimed. "Here's your pass." Jiji held it out to me. "There are quite a few people who signed out today." I knew he meant that the villagers were going to see me open the doors. Of course, they thought I would fail. "I'll just have to give them a show I guess." Jeraiya said, "You're gonna want to go to Ash to get food. The fridge there has been empty for years after all." I nodded. "I'll keep that in mind." Leaving the office I went to the gates. There was a crowd there as well, but we were too far from the Hokage's office. I would have to use the Hirashin out of necessity this time. I passed out of the gates, going about a mile before walking the rest of the way to Ash. While I was there for food, I glanced around at some of the other shops too. I enjoyed seeing familys go about their days. I finished my shopping and headed back. I could sense quite a few chakra signatures outside my new house, but since they were trying to be hidden they wouldn't be any trouble for me and I ignored them. Walking up to the gates, I bit both my thumbs and smeared my blood on the handle. I just knew the villagers in the trees were smirking to themselves. The gates opened soundlessly, allowing me entry. I glanced back and saw the villagers were frozen in shock. I chuckled to myself and entered, the gates closing behind me. It didn't take me too long to unpack, and although the place was kept in decent shape, because it was so big a lot of the unused rooms looked like they hadn't been used for centuries. I started cleaning in the attic and worked my way down. In the attic were boxes of old clothes and an ancient sewing machine, sealed against the ravages of time, thus looking the same as the day they were made. I cleaned out the cobwebs and opened the window by the window seat to air out the room. The training area, swimming pool, kitchen, three of the bedrooms, dining room, living room, and the nursery where I would have grown up had the attack never happened, were all clean and cared for. I scrubbed every inch of the dozens of unused rooms though, and finally made my way to the basement. To my surprise, it was a kind of study. Everything there was neat and dust free. It seemed to be the place my dad worked on seals. I closed the door and resolved to go back tomorrow. I still had two unused days off, and one of them would be spent in that room. I already decided that I would continue my fathers study on seals when I was 8, so that room would be perfect for me.