Chapter Eleven and a Half – A Parent's Intermission (Asahi)

"We need to talk."

I had been doing the dishes with my wife while our children played in the living room. Or at least I thought the three of them were playing together until our oldest child walked up behind us, suddenly proposing that we needed to talk. I made a choking sound in surprise. I tried to cover it up by coughing into my hand. I'm pretty sure no one bought it.

"Yuna-chan, you have the roles reversed. It's usually the parent that asks to talk." I chuckled lightly while I dried my wet hands on the apron I had around my waist. "But yes we can talk. Are we in trouble, Yuna-chan?" My last sentence was said in a teasing manner in hopes of cutting down the tension that was radiating from her.

Something has been terribly wrong with her since that incident at the gates. The terrible panic attack she had the night of the incident was the first start of our worries. We could only assume she had a terrible nightmare that led to releasing a huge amount of chakra in hopes of protecting herself from whatever was haunting her. She was unconscious for nearly a week after that from chakra depletion, missing school and having us constantly on edge. And then there was this morning's events. What was she planning with my kunai knife? Imagine my surprise being jolted out of sleep with a sudden unnerved feeling. At first in my sleepy-state I had mistaken her as an intruder but her small figure was a dead give-away.

"I want to become a ninja now." She spoke with a sound conviction.

Hirana and I looked at each other. Would she ever stop surprising us?

"Well, you're a little behind your peers and you'll need to work very hard to catch up. But if this is what you want, we can't stop you." Hirana was the first to speak up.

I had been eager about entering our daughter when she was younger but now I wasn't quite sure. I had been so desensitized to what ninjas faced that I had chosen the path for her – a dangerous path – all those years ago without a hesitation. But now, after everything that's occurred since Tenka's death I wasn't sure if I wanted any of my children to witness anything remotely related to the ninja lifestyle. To what I faced when I was their age.

A sudden jab in between the spaces of my ribs sent me bending over in pain. In between my moans of pain I managed to mutter out that I would take her to register tomorrow at the ninja academy. After I recovered and Miyuna had left the room, I gave a light glare at my wife for jabbing me in the ribs.

"You weren't responding and she was looking for your approval. You were about to say no, weren't you?" Hirana waved off my glare and returned to finishing the last bowl in the sink.

"Yes, but it's just because I worry about her." I sighed also returning to help her dry the last bowl and stowing it away in the cupboards. "Why are you okay with this?"

"You heard the conviction in her voice. As her parents, we should allow her to do what she believes in. Besides, it was not that long ago that we both wanted her to be ninjas so who are we to reject her when she wants to become one now?"

Another sigh left my lips again – something that I had been doing way too much. I feel like I get a new wrinkle every time I worry about Miyuna.

What made our daughter change so much?

XXX

I didn't want my daughter to become a ninja because I was worried about so many things. But I had to admit that watching her struggle to lace her fingers together for the twelve basic ninja hand signs was extremely amusing. I was lucky I could hide my grins behind my stacks of paperwork.

The twins were with their mother and I had the pleasure of having my daughter in my office. She was a lot quieter than the twins so I could actually get some work done. However, it seemed today was not the case with her constant groans of frustration and me silently snickering at her antics.

Ah~ I shouldn't be laughing at my daughter when she's working so hard. A stab of guilt went through my heart and I hung my head in self-disappointment.

It had been one week since she entered the academy. It somehow worked out that she was placed in the same class as her two brothers. At times I could see her frustration at being shoved in a class with kids so much younger than her but it served as really good motivation to make her work even harder so that she could move to a class where the students were closer to her in age. I snuck a pained looked at her own stack of paper and books filled with the material she needed to catch up to just the level her brothers were on. Well I guess it would mean she wouldn't be out doing missions anytime soon so it gave me a temporary piece of mind.

"Tou-chan, I'm going to return these books back to the library."

"You're done?" I stared at her in surprise. She was ready to leave the room with that huge stack of books in her arm.

"Yeah, the only thing I struggled with was the ninja hand signs. I learned everything else in civilian school." She blinked at me as if to ask haven't you been paying attention to the homework I've asked you to check?

"Oh, so you're caught up already?"

"Yeah," she nodded.

She is a genius for the most part when it comes to school. Maybe she would graduate sooner than I think. Urk. That wasn't a very good thought.

"See you at home, Tou-chan."

I hung my head and muttered out, "Okay."

XXX

AN: Am I making progress? I took a really nice long break…because I got stuck in writer's block more like I got stuck in cement. :)

CELEBRATION FOR OVER 100 STORY ALERTS! WOOHOO! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

BONUS: #1

It was an ordinary day; I had gotten out of civilian school and was now strolling around the village aimlessly. My brothers were off playing games with their new friends at the ninja academy and I was all alone. Again. Maybe I should try making some friends? But the kids in my class were so annoyingly obnoxious. I gave a sigh at my predicament.

"You sound like you're having a mid-life crisis, and I'm pretty sure you're far too young for that." A deep chuckle caused me to twitch violently at the suddenness.

"Sorry, I didn't meant to scare you." Whoever it was apologized quickly. "Forgot you can't sense me like the other kids can."

The last part was quieter, probably because it was not intended for me to hear.

It was Inoichi-san, a colleague of my father who my siblings and I often encountered. He was the "nice guy" who always snuck us in afterschool to go see our father as opposed to the meanie Ibiki-san who always yelled at us that their workplace was not a playground. After the first few visits to the office, we learned his name – Uncle Inoichi-san, the twins called him while I just stuck to plain Inoichi-san though he often urges me to call him uncle like the twins. He has a daughter of his own, the same age as me, but I always shot down his invitations to go play with her.

He had an armful of bouquets in his arms, so much that he was struggling to keep them away from covering his face. He was out of his usual work attire and instead wore more casual clothing with a floral apron on top. It was probably his day off from work, but it honestly didn't look like he was relaxing.

"Do you need some help?" I offered after he seemed like he was really struggling.

XXX

I hadn't envisioned spending the rest of my afternoon helping around the Yamanaka Flower Shop. But that's what happened.

"Thank you for all your help, Miyuna-chan. I usually have Ino around to help but she started her supplementary kunoichi lessons a week ago so she's been staying afterschool later nowadays." I was currently seated on a chair Inoichi had pulled up for me while sipping some tea. We had spent hours organizing and sweeping away dead flower petals. The shop was now sparkling clean and I was rather proud of the good job we did.

"Well it's getting late now, and I should let you go home." I watched curiously as he grabbed a large bouquet of hibiscus and handed the bundle to me. "Can you give these to your mother for me?"

"Did you date my mother too like Nara-san?" I looked at him with a skeptical eye now.

A cough erupted from Inoichi's throat, no doubt from choking in surprise. He grew flustered, and he quickly brought his palm across his cheeks in effort to hide the redness. "No, that's not it. She just– She makes this lovely hibiscus tea!"

"Sure," I replied with a disdainful tone and left him to his spluttering mess as I hopped down from my seat and walked out of the shop with the bouquet anyways.