[Uchiha Hotaru]

[googlefont=Muli]

Two years had passed since Uchiha Kazuya left this world. He still remembered the anticipation in his father’s eyes when he learned the news, thinking that the sharingan would finally awaken. Disgust and despair made a bitter drink that cemented Hotaru's hatred for the man.

The rumors went around as well, that Hotaru was so emotionless that even his mother’s death didn’t unlock his sharingan. It wasn’t enough that he got out of academy three years early. It wasn’t enough that he got through the exams before most people his age were genin. It wasn’t enough that he was inducted in ANBU. The barriers he couldn’t break were all that mattered. There had never been time for mother or for friends, and there wasn’t even time for Kazui now.

He felt guilty being here, at a grave among many others. The baby was living and breathing, and the word was that she would survive. Grandma needed breaks from her, but Hotaru couldn’t be the one to do it often. Sleep was rare for him. Even now, his eyes were bloodshot from a soldier pill he took on his last mission.

"I don’t want her to grow up like me,” Hotaru whispered to the grave. "I hope you’ll forgive me.”

He sat awhile longer and then stood up and started walking towards the gates of the graveyard with his hands in his pockets, although there was still quite a ways to walk. In no particular rush he looked around at the graves and their visitors.

[Senju Kazuto]

The ground around the grave was still fresh. Perfect grass disturbed into black earth around a slab of stone, new in the seemingly endless rows of graves. The name Asada Suguha being engraved on the smooth stone, the rank and profession displayed and the symbol of the village that she had served. It had been a short service. Of the few that had come to pay their respects only one had remained after the eulogy and benedictions had been delivered. After all, where could the boy go? Kazuto could not answer that to himself. His world had grown dimmer, sadder and colder when his mother had closed her eyes and drawn her last breath. He didn't know who his father was and could only ask if he had ever known about him or even if he was alive. Yet all that his mother would tell him is that he was gone. He hadn't comprehended the meaning of those words. He hadn't seen the hurt and pain in his mother's eyes when he had asked innocently only for her to lie to him. Sparing him from the truth. He had expected to see someone resembling him at the funeral, but whatever hope he might have had vanished like the incense smoke in the wind. By now, Kazuto had stood vigil. The lingering memory of the hands on his shoulders, the beckons of leave with whoever had spoken. He hadn't listen, or at the very least pretended he hadn't. He had wept, tired green eyes had become bloodshot. He had wanted to say something, anything, but his mouth felt dry, words failed him and a whimper was all that escaped from him before silence had settled. "Mom... I..." The boy said and failed to say anymore and cried again. How could go on now, let alone become a shinobi when now all seemed so hopeless.

-tag- Uchiha Hotaru -words- 323 -notes- --- -music- ---

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[Uchiha Hotaru]

[googlefont=Muli]

Hotaru’s hands were buried in his pockets, with his eyes down towards the ground as he drifted away from his mother’s grave towards the gates. His eyes lifted to meet the sound of crying that fell onto his ears, picking out the word ‘Mom’. He frowned and looked around hoping to see a father standing nearby, but found no one.

Another orphan brought to you by Konohagakure. He took a deep breath. There wasn’t anything he could do for them, there hadn’t been anything anyone could have done for him after his own mother died. Although his grandma had been there for him, he had to deal with his grief on his own. So why did he feel the need to open his mouth?

"Hey—” He moved to stand five feet away from Kazuto, his eyes scanning over the gravestone. His eyes closed when he saw it. She’d given him a few lessons in medical ninjutsu as a genin. She wasn’t someone he knew very well, but it was sad to see she had passed. Hotaru thought she worked in the hospital, so he wondered what happened. "I’m sorry for your loss... She was a good person.”

What could Hotaru really claim to know about them? That they were good at stitches and had a nice smile? He might not even be remembering the right person. He should have just minded his own business.

[Senju Kazuto]

His sobs where the only thing he could hear. Sinking to his knees, his vision became blurry as tears welled and rolled down his cheeks. Pain throbbed in his head as he sucked in air and tried to find some solace, something to calm himself, a morsel of consolation that at the very least his mother was now in a better place after suffering from her illness. He wanted to believe that with every fiber of his being, to allow the seemingly empty platitudes to wash over him, dry his tears and calm his rushed breath. Perhaps tomorrow would make for a better day if that was the case, but he couldn't. The young boy tried to wipe the tears from his eyes with the back of his hand, trying to compose himself, remembering the mantras that his teachers at the academy had told him about his emotions, going in circles as he tried to convince that inconsolable part of himself to just block off the pain, to push it into a corner and hope that the grief would be buried there. That wouldn't work either for either those ideals had not been properly etched into his mind or simply that the lessons were something their teachers made up to waste everyone's time. Silence was broken then, his hands moving to wipe tears from a face that had turned red from the weeping. A boy stood next to him, what seemed to be an sympathetic smile in his features, his words being filled with empathy for what he was going through. Wiping his eyes again he would look at the boy, he didn't know who he was, but he seemed pleasant. "Di-..." He began, his words came out feebly, stuttering before he gulped. "Did... Did you knew my mom?" He asked him.

-tag- Uchiha Hotaru -words- 312 -notes- --- -music- ---

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[Uchiha Hotaru]

[googlefont=Muli]

"Not well, I’ll admit. She gave me a few lessons on medicine,” he said. "She was very kind to me and didn’t seem to mind when I missed a vein a few times when I was learning how to give shots.. Come to think of it, I think she had a son around my age, that must be you.”

He reluctantly put a hand onto the boy’s shoulder. His eyes were cold and gray but he had a sort of soft warmth to him. Hotaru saw that the interaction so far helped to calm him down a bit. Glancing back at the grave one more time, he thought he’d try to help them a little longer. He didn’t have any peers who knew what it was like when he was in the thick of his grief, and he wasn’t sure if it would have made things any better or not for him. Either way, he’d give it a try.

"I am Hotaru,” he said in introduction. He avoided giving his last name. His progress to the rank of chunin was very fast and many aspired to be like him, not knowing what the cost was. Hotaru released his hand from the boy’s shoulder and offered it forward to shake. "What is your name?”

[Senju Kazuto]

He barely knew her, then. Kazuto thought quietly as sobs slowly died down and were replaced with some pain radiating from his temple. He looked down for a second. In truth he didn't know if his mother had made much of the impact for the village. He knew she had her peers and superiors and on the few occasions that she had taken him with him to her work she seemed to be very well liked. Of course he hadn't seen what actually went by in the medical center nor what she truly did. Still, he supposed it was good that someone knew about her, besides himself. Kazuto felt the hand of the boy on his shoulder as his hand raised to wipe the last remnant of his tears away. His breath easing by the small gesture of kindness and the glare of slate grey eyes that reminded the young boy of fog. Presented himself as Hotaru and pulling his hand away from his shoulder, the boy would offer him a hand. He gulped again, hesitating before shaking his hand before he he opened his mouth. "Ka... Kazuto." He stuttered and felt his mouth dry before directing his sight down. "Thank you." The boy said, still mourning but honest with the gratitude. "Not many came... Just a few coworkers." In reality he knew that Hotaru had come here by accident, had he taken a different path he might have as well just be on his business, but it didn't make any less that he had taken his time to come to console him and show respects to his mother. He knew that his grandparents had died, they had been shinobi and as far as he knew his mother hadn't any close relatives. It didn't made it hurt less and he had hoped that someone might have come to take him.

-tag- Uchiha Hotaru -words- 320 -notes- --- -music- ---

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