Every year on his birthday (or, rather, the day Mum found him) Kareruās aunts and uncles hold a tournament.
Supposedly itās to see who his favorite isāhe knows better than to actually answer that questionābut Kareru thinks itās just an excuse to hang out with each other. Or maybe āexcuseā is the wrong word, it makes it sound like a bad thing; maybe āreasonā would be better.
Every year on his birthday all the people he loves gather together and thereās nothing bad about that.
ā
āIām thinking about growing my hair out,ā Kareru says, tugging on the red strands that brush against his ears. He is the Uzumaki clan head, a recent genin, and simultaneously thirteen years old and somewhere in his forties. Maybe fifties.
āOh, yeah?ā Mirai asks, pulling on her own long dark locks. They curl around her fingers and cling like little tendrilsāto her fingers and, from the leaves and twigs in her hair, everything else, āIāve been thinking of cutting mine.ā
āIāll do it if you do,ā Kareru promises, reaching out with his pinky extended.
Mirai blinks at him before smiling, matches him and intertwines their pinkies.
Kareru will remember this moment for the rest of his life.
ā
People expect a lot from him, he knows, even people heās never met.
Heās a bit famousānot to be vaināgiven who his parents are and the circumstances of his birth (or, rather, finding). And not to mention, heās been communally raised by a group of shinobi who can individually be called impressive and collectively be considered overkill.
He has a good foundation to build from, the best foundation it could be saidāagain, not to be vaināand so he knows that the expectations on him arenāt entirely unfair.
Heās not going to be the Sage of Six Paths come again. Heās not going to be the Uzukage, resurrectingāfiguratively, of courseāthe fallen village of Uzushio. Heās not going to single-handedly revolutionize the field of fuinjutsu and usher in an era of prosperity and peace on top of the already prosperous and peaceful existence the world is currently enjoying.
Kareru wonāt live up to everybodyās expectations, certainly not those expectations, but itās nice to think that people think he can. The fact that people think that of him, even if those are exaggerations and extremes, is only because in some way they believe in him.
And even if he doesnāt know what he wants to do yet, itās still nice to be believed in.
ā
Baa-chan teaches him how to cook, how to lie with a smile, and how to flip backwards into a one handed handstand and kick someone in the face all in one smooth movement.
Surprisingly, all three things save his life. Even more surprisingly, itās all during the same mission.
TenTen-oba⦠er, that is, TenTen-sensei, stares at him, hands on her hips, with an expression heās seen her give Mum before: confused, but reluctantly impressed.
āWeāre not even Team Seven,ā she says, as she signals for Mirai to tie up the prisoner and Shachi to secure the perimeter, āI didnāt think this would be a problem,ā she sounds even a little bit irritatedābut her hands are gentle when she checks the stab wound on his shoulder, and so he knows sheās mostly just worried.
āSorry,ā he says, hissing in pain as she tugs the kunai out, and sticks a healing tag on the wound. One of her inventions together with Sakura-obaātranslating the Mystical Palm jutsu into sealsāsomething heās been meaning to ask her to teach him.
āDonāt apologize,ā Mirai says, having finished tying up the prisoner thoroughly and with a knockout tag to boot, āItās not your fault,ā she says pointedly in Shachiās direction, who looks away with reddening cheeks.
āItās nobodyās fault,ā TenTen-sensei says, helping Kareru to his feet once the healing tag has run its course, āAlthough Iām sure your father will tell me otherwise.ā
Kareru doesnāt know what TenTen-sensei and Tou-chan have against each otherāsomething to do with how much of a bastard he was as a genin, Dad will sayābut he has long since learned how to capitalize on it.
āI wonāt tell him if you teach me the healing tag,ā he says with a wide grin. He can fix the hole in his shirt and wash away the blood easily, itās the lying that will be difficult: Tou-chan does have the Sharingan, after all, and he has years of interpreting Mumās carefully crafted understatements.
But Baa-chan did teach him how to lie with a smile and thatās one thing Kareru learned better than Mum.
ā
Mum isnāt around a lotātraveling and researching and (though he knows heās not supposed to know) maintaining her part of Konohaās extensive spy networkāwhich makes the time she is around all the more precious.
āKareru!ā she calls out, before he can get within five feet of her. He knows heāll never really be able to sneak up on herāher sensor abilities and his chakra capacity making the very idea impossibleābut he likes to try anyway. Sheās not angry or annoyed by it, gladly accepting the hug he gives her and even tolerating the way he lifts her off the ground for a moment.
Sheās still taller than himāwhich some part of him is relieved by, never mind that heās outgrown both of his dadsābut sheās thin in his arms, light and easy to carry. He wonders if sheās been eating enough out on the road all alone, and he finds the thought infinitely sad.
This is a part of growing up.
ā
When he was a toddler, Kareru got to be Hokage for a day.
Not really, of course. It was mostly Kaka-jii-chan letting him play with the Hokageās hat and draw on no doubt terribly important documents, but itās one of Kareruās earliest memories. The view from the Hokageās desk as shinobi come and bow and speak and leave, the entire village spreading out from the tower like ripples from a fallen object.
Itās a nice memory, but Kareru knows he doesnāt want it to happen again. He loves Konoha, itās his home even if he wasnāt born here, but Hokage for one day is enough for him.
~
A/N: A bunch of random snippets in Kareruās life because, I dunno, I didnāt have much direction here, @captainlibrarynerdstuff. But it was fun to write nonetheless and I think Iām getting a better idea of what Kareru is like as a person.
Also, because I say so, Shachi is Shachi Umino aka Irukaās nonexistent child with⦠I dunno? Someone? I dunno. I built an entire backstory for Shachi even though heās hardly in this, but basically he ends up having the Mokuton because I say so⦠but also because I head canon that Iruka is somehow related to the Senju (which is why he looks so goddamn much like Hashirama, I know itās mostly same face art from Kishimoto, but let me have this) via his mother and then I had to come up with a Senju line so itās probably something likeā¦
Shachi Umino, son of Iruka Umino, son of Kohari Umino nee Senju, cousin of Tsunade Senju via Harigane Senju (who I made up) who is siblings with one of Tsunadeās parents (who donāt exist at all?!) and thus child of Hashirama Senju and Mito Uzumaki. So Shachi is the great great grandson of Hashirama and Mito.
Basically, TenTenās team have super prestigious pedigrees and sheās the long-suffering herder of these overpowered cats. She thought sheād avoid the craziness by it being Team Nine instead of Team Seven, but then she remembers that she was Team Nine and her team had Gai, Lee, and Neji so⦠(she doesnāt realize that someone who can create Hammerspace as a teenager should also be considered impressive, but she likes the idea that sheās normal too much to abandon it).