Konoha, October 10th
Today was Menma's midterm examination date. Yes, you heard it right—the examination date. It has been more than two months since the hateful woman entered his life. He now perfectly understands what it feels like to be born into a family that plans your life for you—from the first hour of morning to the middle of the night.
Just on the second day, she came with a large timetable, a lot of teaching material, and a calendar. First, she arranged his sleeping hours, then when he would go to the bathroom or shower, and his food schedule.
Afterward, she broke the day into two sections—before lunch and after a midday nap. In the first half of the day, she would teach about culture, history, political systems, currency, and mathematics—not forgetting to ask him to write everything down.
After normal stuff, she would teach him Shinobi theories: how to identify direction, important clues, ninja tools and their uses, or her experience along with brother dog's random experience, and some other stuff.
Next, at lunch time, he had to try to eat his food with chopsticks... He had to try holding food or fight with it for his dear life with already swollen fingers.
When he protested, do you know what she said?! She said to use his other hand. Woman, do you know what you are asking him to do?? Is that even possible?! Does she want him to pass out from hunger in front of the table?
Finally, out of frustration, he tried, and the results didn't change much. So he gave in and used his left hand to hold the chopsticks. At least it didn't hurt his fingers anymore.
However, in the afternoon, he had to wear finger weights. That's right. Finger weights. Circular metal finger gloves, made of some sort of iron, and super heavy. Then he had to make various hand seals with his brother Dog, who is named Kakashi.
Oh, and yes, he finally knows his brother dog's name. That day after he complained to brother dog about his teacher, he kneeled down in front of him and put his hand on his shoulders, saying that his name was Kakashi, and he had to call him big brother Kakashi from that day on.
He sensed that Yoruusagi sensei was behind him and bombed him with his name.
"But he asked back, why should I, brother dog? Isn't your nickname brother dog? Then why are you called brother dog? You should have told me earlier, brother dog!"
He coughed a sound of small giggling as well. Hm. Thinking that he would forget about his revenge. Dream on.
After trying for one hour with brother dog, he would train another hour with Yoruusagi sensei—but this time, he would make a one-handed seal, or follow her hands' movement, holding each other hand and locking fingers together to make a two-handed seal with her hand.
The first one was fine, but several times when he was making hand seals with Yoruusagi sensei's hand, he felt his fingers dislocated, and he even broke one finger, which was put back in its place by the teacher and bandaged with white cloth and finally knotted with a beautiful bow tie at the end...
Oh, at the same time, she would not let go of his legs and pull them at various angles, trying to increase his flexibility. He guesses if he wasn't a child with soft bones and tendons, he would have to go through several surgeries to be able to walk and use his limbs again after each and every day.
After that, he would rest a little, and then they would go outside, to the playground that was always empty or the lush mini jungle there.
There, she would use a clone and transformation technique to create another him and teach him fighting skills—basically beat him black and blue.
Next was illusion training. He had to endure various monsters and nightmares for one hour and try to find their flaws.
Next was the sensing time. She would infuse several shurikens with various types of chakra with brother dog's help and then hide them nearby, asking him to find them without falling in a trap. Traps were not filled with ropes, wasps, or sharp weapons—instead, they were all kinds of smelly stuff like diapers, socks, rotten bread, swamp mud, and many disgusting traps making him vomit from the smell alone.
He knew that it was Kakashi who told her that he hated being covered in dirt or smelly things. But he also took revenge. Once, he fell into a mud trap, and when he came out, he suddenly jumped on Kakashi, who was reading his bad book, which he had picked up on reading recently again, and made him look exactly like him—a mud monkey. And then, together with Kakashi, they ambushed teacher Yoruusagi and covered her in mud too, resulting in being chased for an hour.
Bad Kakashi used him as bait and ran away alone, not coming back until the next day. So he was punished alone, standing in a plank position until he collapsed.
After the sensory training, he had to train physically for an hour, sometimes two—like lifting weights, doing push-ups and sit-ups. Not forgetting squats. Also, standard punching position, punching the air or a tree.
Next, he had to cover his eyes and dodge pebbles thrown by sensei or watch out for a sudden push from behind.
And lastly, he would have to try standing on some uneven surfaces and ropes on one leg while the teacher would shake them—or him—from time to time. This one hurt the most, and after he finished, he couldn't stand up for a long time, hurting everywhere.
Afterward, he would be carried to the bathroom by Yoruusagi sensei and helped to take a bath followed by a medicine bath after being cleaned thoroughly. It would ease his body and soothe his pain.
Finally, he had a big dinner, made by brother dog while fighting with sensei for a fork, holding the chopsticks.
Then, a night reading and time to sleep.
Each day was hard and painful. Yoruusagi was a strict teacher. She was cruel to him in many places, draining his potential to the fullest.
But he could tell she had come to love him. He could sense a lot of warm and kind emotions from her, just like Kakashi, but without a mix of guilt.
At first, it wasn't that obvious, but after two months, he had changed a lot. His body had stopped growing like crazy like before, but his strength had increased by leaps and bounds. His baby fat also decreased a lot, meaning his tummy was encountering its last moments, but he wasn't sad for it.
He also counted its last days so he could see his long-missed abs. Bye-bye tummy, hello my lovely abs. Perhaps sensing his nonexistent sadness, his tummy has struggled to fight back to not leave him alone in this dark world, but reality looked dark for him.
Anyway, he wished that these days wouldn't end, and they would always be a family like this.
Back to the day.
After two months, today was his midterm exam. If his results were satisfying, he was promised to be taken out of here and see the outside world—the village, in its true sense, by himself.
After breakfast, the exam began.
First was the writing exam, which he passed with flying results.
After that was his sealing test. He was called to name each seal in order and perform it. Then the one-handed model. Finally, he had to use a clone's hand who exactly looked like himself without breaking anything. He had a few mistakes, especially in the process with his clone, but was passed.
Next was his flexibility, in which he made a dance mixed with pop style and yoga, doing something unseen to this day and making his sensei speechless from the beauty and novelty of it, passing easily.
Then there was lunch, where he had to use his left hand holding up various stuff with chopsticks. He passed that with a close call.
After a rest, he moved to the playground. There he had to first use the ninja tools in front of him to make various traps.
Then he had a spar with the clone, not losing too badly.
The next subject was keeping the balance on a wooden plank on top of a rolling stone ball. He kept his balance for ten minutes until he was shaken by his sensei, falling down and being laughed at by his teacher. He could only pout and not talk to her in protest.
Next, he closed his eyes and began dodging pebbles. He successfully dodged half of them—better than ever before.
Lastly, he had to go into the trees and try to find several flags, hidden by the teacher, marked with chakra while avoiding the traps.
As the chakra would dissolve slowly until it was completely exhausted, he had to rush or else he would fail.
Entering the jungle and moving to the middle, avoiding traps, he stood calmly and focused his senses to the fullest and began to check the entire jungle.
Everything around him turned dark, but slowly, dots began to appear. One... Three... Seven... Eight... And finally, nine.
Finding all of them, he made a safe and short route in his mind and began to move while checking for traps. Finally, after only falling in one mud trap, he returned to the finish line before the time was up.
He was genuinely happy. He wanted to share his success with big brother Kakashi and his sensei. But today, only his sensei was there, and he couldn't find Kakashi, who always was there. This pained him a little, especially since today was his birthday, which he figured out on his own.
He expected him to be here—but wasn't. He didn't show it on his face, buried it in his heart deeply, hidden from everyone.
After getting his hard earned praise from his sensei, he walked to the bathroom to wash up and then go outside. But when he came out, dressed neatly, he found out that he was alone. Confused, he looked around the house and found a letter on the table.
He walked toward it and opened it full of curiosity. He saw it was her handwriting—neat and clean, without any cross out. Just like her appearance.
It had a lot of words, but what it said was simple:
Today was their last day as a family of three. He was able to live on his own now and had completed whatever he had to learn before school. She wished him good luck and asked him to live with a smile every day.
The news came in like a dark tide, washing away any happiness, hopes, and expectations he had for the future.
He rushed out of the house, not bothering to even wear his shoes, and ran straight to the entrance of the clan. The gates that are always closed to him, opposite the playground.
He rushed all the way there but didn't see anyone but felt a number of people in the dark—even familiar chakra of the stone statue sisters, whom he hadn't seen for two months, with high amounts of hostility inside them, directed at him, and with each step it became heavier.
He finally stopped not far away from the gates that locked him in and crumbled the letter in his hand.
He stood there for a long time, finally turned around and walked toward the playground.
Entering there, he saw every track of the three there. Feeling the peeking figure from afar, he was annoyed. He didn't want anyone to see him or see anyone now while he was in pain.
Looking around for a place to hide and become unnoticed, he saw the jungle in front. He made a decision and walked there slowly.
After stepping inside, he saw a hidden trap. So in order to distract his mind for even just a moment from the pain that punctured his lungs and heart, he decided to deactivate the trap.
He worked carefully and was full of attention. Finally, after a few minutes, he deactivated it, turning the ground back to how it should be.
And the pain came back.
Not wanting to endure it any longer, he moved deeper looking for the next one. After finding one, he debated it, and deactivated it, moving to the next. He repeated this cycle again and again. Not noticing that night was approaching.
Just as the sun's last light was shining into the jungle, he heard a cat's desperate and exhausted call. It was weak and milky.
He followed the sound, as it seemed to need help, until he reached a crack on a tree standing high.
Knowing the source of sound, he slowly climbed the tree, falling a few times in the process of reaching the gap.
Finally, he climbed high enough after he was wounded and hurt a lot. He looked inside and found a little white dirty kitten.
From its weak voice and dirty looks, and the fact that there wasn't a track of animal actions around, he came to the conclusion that it was abandoned.
Feeling sympathetic, he slowly extended his hand inside the gap and scooped the kitten, bringing it to his side.
Holding it, he saw a tiny wound in its hind leg, guessing why it was abandoned. He slowly and carefully climbed down, but his bleeding knee was suddenly scratched by the bark of the tree, making him tremble in pain and fall down.
Afraid that the kitten would be hurt, he held it in his embrace tightly, falling on his back. It hurt so much that his eyes went black and he coughed in pain. It took a long time for him to calm down. Enduring the pain, he checked the kitten, and when he saw it was fine, he checked himself.
Luckily, he hadn't broken a bone or dislocated something, but he was definitely bruised.
Staggering to his feet, he limped toward his house, not caring about the eye that had appeared for some time in the dark.
He finally reached the house after the dark fell. He turned on the lights. The bright light burned his eyes for a while.
He put on the sneakers slowly, not wanting to dirty the house with his black and bloody bare legs.
He then grabbed a slightly large bowl from the kitchen and a few pieces of clothes and went to the bathroom.
He first washed the kitten inside the bowl, cleaned it, then dried it and finally dressed the wound with a bandage.
Afterward, he washed himself, cleaned the wounds on his legs, and applied ointment on the bruises he could reach and around the wounds. Finally, he dressed them all with a lot of bandages and grabbed pieces of clothes from earlier and put them on, not forgetting to wet the dirty and broken clothes so he could wash them tomorrow.
He then started to comb his long flame-like hair. He always loved his blood colored hair and red eyes the most. It gave him warmth that he didn't feel in anything else. He didn't know why though.
Now combing his hair, he began to shed tears of sadness, but he kept his calm, not collapsing. After all, It wasn't the first time he was abandoned, and he had grown up much more than just physically in past six months.
Finally, completely combing his hair, he took the kitten to the kitchen, first gave it a bowl of milk and then warmed up the leftover from yesterday's dinner. He noticed there was just enough food for two.
He now knows why Kakashi, that dog, made twice the usual amount. Kakashi knew what he was doing. He really was a dog. Not even a goodbye letter for him. That hurts a lot, you know, you short dead fish dog...
After eating the food with small gulps using a spoon and fork that hadn't been touched for two months, he didn't feel the slightest amount of happiness. He put the dishes back inside the sink and wet them.
Then he went and made a simple bed for the kitten on the table next to his bed, using a few old clothes and a towel.
After making sure everything was ready, he checked around, locked the door and took the kitten to its new bed while turning off the lights.
Lying down in his own bed, enduring the pain coming from every bone and muscle—especially his heart muscles—he snuggled a pillow and looked at the white kitten.
He looked at it for a long time then suddenly said loudly:
"Snow. I'll call you Snow from now on. There are a lot of kittens like you, but you form alone, fall alone, and finally melt alone—just like me. So Snow, do you like the name I gave you?"
Snow, as if she understood what Menma meant, called him sweetly.
Menma smiled at the voice of his new companion, saying something softly under his breath:
> "The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep."
(Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening – Robert Frost)
"Yoruusagi-sensei… Brother Kakashi…
I hate you.
Never come back…
Huff… Ahem…"
And then, the small house was filled with the sound of a boy's quiet sobbing—carried away by the wind and swallowed by the falling leaves of autumn....
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