"Y-You... what?" I say, suddenly breathless.

Through his thick cloud of smoke, the oxygen inside my lungs has taken immediate leave. This man... knows me? How does he know me? How on earth does he know me?!

"You were sent here by your grandmother, weren't you?" he asks. "Makara." For a moment, what he says doesn't register. I'd already forgotten that my sensei has been my family this whole time. And so, the only movement I can make to give him is a nod. "And did she give you anything to give to me, by chance?" I nod again.

Pulling my bag off my back, I unzip it and reach inside the pocket once more, taking out both the envelope and the small yellow box, and handing it to him.

He takes the box first. He is wary, and clearly doesn't want to expose its contents to me, so he hides it behind his hands before opening the lid. Maybe it was along the same lines of Makara-sensei's eye trick that allowed this Hokage person to be able to open the box and not me. I wonder if some kind of message appeared for him on the lid like it did for me...

Whatever is inside the box, he seems to be understanding and accepting of it, and without a single word to cure my curiousity, he closes it back up, and sets it beside him on his desk, moving on.

Tearing the envelope open at the folds, he pulls out an old-looking piece of paper that threatens to split at his touch. But he is extremely careful while unfolding it, and then lays it down on his desk.

For several moments, his focus is solely on the letter, leaving me standing in the center of the room, feeling mildly uneasy. I watch his facial expressions change when his eyes flicker to the next lines: thin smiles, uneasy twitching of the lips, wide eyes, his fidgeting hands, and subtle sounds of laughter that escape his wrinkled mouth. Just what is in that letter?

"I see," he says finally, forcing his eyes away from the letter and over at me. "I suppose your grandmother has told you?"

"Y-Yes, sir..."

I look to the Hokage, whose eyes are shut, and wait for his deliberation. I twist my fingers in a nauseous anticipation. I see his mouth move, as though he is speaking, and realize he is speaking to himself in a whisper.

"Please, sir," I say, quickly, before he has another chance to think about it. "She... she sacrificed her life so I could escape from the mountains. It was her wish that I come here, and live a life of happiness! ... though, I don't exactly get how she expects me to be happy, after all that's happened, b-but I swear, I'm not a danger to anyone!"

"Kari, Kari, Kari... do you think I would just kick you out?" the Hokage says, chuckling lowly. He smiles at me.

"I-I..."

"A long time ago, this village used to be your home," he tells me. My lips part. "Both you and your mother lived here, and even after she took you away from this place, it has continued to be your home."

I blink at him. "What?" I breathe. "I used to live here? Here?"

"That's right," he says.

He suddenly pushes himself and his chair away from the table and stands up. Crossing over to me, he places an aged hand on my shoulder and smiles even wider at me.

"Welcome home, Kari," he says to me.

"But... h-how come I don't remember this place?" I ask. The Hokage traces the beard on his chin with his fingers and hums.

"I would imagine that it would have something to do with you being attacked by your own chakra. Not only did your parents' sacrifice cause that chakra to be sealed away, but some of your own memories, most likely between the time of your birth and the time of the sacrifice, itself.

"Now, enough talk about that for now," the Hokage tells me, taking his hand off my shoulder. "We have arrangements to discuss!"

"A-Arrangements?" I repeat.

"Yes, and we'll talk about them on the way."

During the entirety of our walk, I'm on edge.

While being in the Lord Hokage's presence is... comforting, I'm constantly looking around me, wary of the people who walk past us. Lord Hokage promises me I can trust them, but I'm not quite sure of this yet.

"The Will of Fire burns in all of us, Kari," Lord Hokage told me. "The Hidden Leaf is more than just a village; it's a family. And you're a member of that family once again. It may take you a while to feel like this is the case, but I'm sure it won't be long until you become at ease."

This had changed my feelings in this place. I hadn't thought of it that way. Maybe it's the nagging feeling in the back of my head, where Makara-sensei had warned me about my father's family, that I find it difficult to want to trust the other villagers. If a group of people like the Yamada can be so untrustworthy, who is to say that the rest of the villagers here aren't the same? I feel the Hokage understands this.

"Lord Hokage," I say, once he finishes speaking to a small group of children, much younger than myself. "I have to ask you..."

"Yes, Kari?"

"... the other Yamada... my grandmother said in her letter to me that.. they're no good, to put it lightly... that I shouldn't trust them. Well, if they're here in the village, then why would she tell me to come here?"

"Ah, you're mistaken, Kari," the Hokage tells me. "I'm assuming she forgot to mention how the other Yamada were banished from the Hidden Leaf Village long ago. So you won't have to worry about running into them here. You're safe."

"... and also... how did you know my grandmother?" I ask him, all the while wondering why they'd been banished. He smiles at the street ahead of us.

"Just like you and your mother, Makara also lived here in the village," he explains. "However, it was many, many years ago that she did. The last time Makara had been here in the village... must have been over twenty years ago, after her godson was killed in action."

"Killed in action?" I repeat, anxiety welling up inside me. Makara-sensei had a godson...? I had... an uncle who died in battle...

"A majority of the village are Shinobi," Lord Hokage tells me. "They train and train to become strong, in order to protect the village and its people. When one of our Shinobi die when protecting the village outside of its borders, and we are unable to retrieve their bodies from the battlefield, we say they are "killed in action". "We honour them by etching their names into a memorial stone, here, in the village."

"I... see," I say quietly. "Lord Hokage... if I stay here, do I have to become... a Shinobi?"

He guffaws, and tips his hat upward at me.

"I would've thought you'd want to take after Makara and your mother, but then again, maybe not?" And he laughs again. I don't understand what's so funny to him.

"Yes!" I exclaim. "Yes, more than anything! I want to be just as strong as they were. I saw my grandmother fight that night, and for the first time, I experienced just what kind of other things I'm capable of, besides Taijutsu. That, um... that Sharin-thing? I want to learn it, too. I've only ever wanted to leave that cabin, and because of my grandmother's sacrifice, and my parent's sacrifices, I am here. So if they were Shinobi, then... that's the path I wish to take, as well!"

The Hokage smiles at me once more. "Very well. I will speak to Iruka in the morning, and have him arrange you into his class."

"Iruka? Class?"

"Iruka is the name of your new teacher," Lord Hokage says. "You do want to learn to be a Shinobi, do you not?"

"More than anything now," I say with a nod.

Suddenly, the Lord Hokage stops walking, in front of a large beige house with a wide porch and large windows. This, I realize, was the house down one of the paths from the front gates.

"Then I'll welcome you home once more, Kari," he says, and gestures to it. My lips part.

"This... is my house?" I ask for reassurance. Lord Hokage rests his hand on my shoulder again, still smiling.

"No, Kari," he says. Panicked, I look up to him. "This is your home."

Noticing a light switch on the wall from a ray of light that spilled in through the doorway, I flick it on, and gasp in awe.

"This place... is even bigger than I thought!" I exclaim.

The living room has a set of large green couches, with an olive green kotatsu in front of it. From there, there are three other doorways that lead to what I think is a kitchen, a washroom, and a laundry room.

"Amazing!" I run inside, slamming the door behind me and kicking off my boots on my way to the kitchen. It looks almost similar to the kitchen back home. My old home, I mean. The stove is white, and so is the refrigerator. There is also a large dinner table that seats eight.

And the bathroom is just as large. There is a sink with a large counter at least seven feet long, all crystal clean and sparkling, as if someone had just cleaned it an hour ago. And the laundry room has huge appliances, just as white as the washroom had been. There isn't much else to see here, so I continue on in my tour of my new home.

Finding another door, I open it up, revealing a staircase that leads up to another level of the house. Making it to the top, there is a short hallway, with four doors on either side, with two more adjacent doors at the very end.

The first two doors are bedrooms, both equal in design, aside from the different colour of paint on the walls, one being yellow, and the other, blue. Shutting them, I continue to the other rooms. The next two are also bedrooms, but are empty and white. The third is an office, similar looking to Lord Hokage's.

So I go inside the office, and turn on its light. On each of the five walls, there are photographs, and lots of them. Some have a woman in them, and some had a man, but not a single one had both of them in it.

But what catches my eye is that in every picture, there is a baby - a little girl - with black eyes and black hair, and that she looks so much like the woman, and barely of the man. The only thing she owned of her father, who had brown hair and green eyes, was her smile.

If I had to guess, this being my home from when I lived here before... These must be my parents. It takes a moment for this to register in my head. Finally, there are faces to match their names. Though, I can't bring myself to look away from my mother. She looks just like Makara-sensei. Positively identical, just younger.

In the same moment, I find myself beginning to cry. I decide to leave the office as it is, and leave.

Shutting the door behind me, I step over to the last doorway, which behind it has another staircase. Climbing them, I find myself in an old attic, filled with several dozen boxes, large and small. They must've left this behind, too, I conclude. I won't touch this room, either. Not yet.

Mildly exhausted from my travels here, I fall onto the thick cushions of the couch in the living room. I hadn't bothered to empty out my bag, or take off my coat, or even find anything to eat. I doubt that someone has had the fridge stocked up all this time, or any of the cupboards. And that means I have to get up off this couch and get dinner.

And several other things.

Clothes, hygienic products, groceries-- you name it. And with the money that Makara-sensei gave me, it should be no problem.

Grabbing at the armrest, I pull myself to my feet with a loud groan, and shrug off my sweaty coat. It's so hot here in the Land of Fire. I guess that makes sense, all things considering. Picking my bag off the floor, I sling it over my shoulder and walk to the front door, where I pull my boots back on, unlock the door, step outside, pull out my key, and lock it again. I laugh lightly, awhile stuffing it into my shirt.

"This is my house," I say aloud. I laugh again. "It's mine."

Updated January 13th, 2020
2,190 words