21 Chapter 21: Returning Home
Life continued on for Keitaro and his family and a few weeks had already passed since Keitaro and Kentaro had been to the clan for the selection of ninken.
Whether for good or for bad, there had been no complication on confrontations between them and the members of the clan, and Kentaro had already started to incorporate ninken training into his day to day routine.
It had been an odd adjustment for Kentaro as he now spent a few evenings every week at the clan, undergoing strenuous training geared towards strengthening him and his ninken, when he normally would have had time to hang with his friends and his brother.
Keitaro was still too young to be considered eligible to begin any serious forms of shinobi training, and as such still spent most of his time either at home or in a corner of the playground playing around with his chakra.
He had been making steady progress with his chakra control and had decided to up the difficulty by trying to hold two leaves to the back of his neck at the same time. It had been a challenge at first, but he had gotten accustomed to it after a few days.
While most would have found the exercises boring or repetitive, they were more so a source of encouragement for Keitaro. A physical representation of how his effort was showing tangible results. If he kept up this level of chakra control progression, then by the time he enrolled into the academy he was sure that he would be a top student guaranteed.
Other than a few other minor things that had cropped up here and there, like making a few new friends and showing greater improvement in calligraphy and his personal studies, there wasn't much that changed in the day to day lives of Keitaro and his family.
As such it was quite a surprise to Keitaro, when his father came home and told both boys that they would have to begin packing up their belongings to prepare to move shortly.
"Why are we moving?" asked a intrigued Keitaro while sitting at the breakfast table.
"Well with your brother having training at the clan compound practically every day, I just thought it would be better to move back into our old home."
Kuma, placed a plate filled with food unto the table and turned back to the stove to stir the pot of gruel that he was preparing. He was once again wearing the frilly pink apron, which was only making it harder for Keitaro to take hm seriously.
"Not to mention that with you growing up, its going to be soon time for you to begin training as well. Your going to need more space and right now, this place just isn't going to be big enough for the three of us anymore. It'll just be easier for everyone if we moved back in with the clan."
Kentaro who had been quietly sitting to the side and playing with his ninken who he had named Shiromaru, due to the small diamond shaped fleck of white fur on its forehead, decided to chime in.
"You're going to love it, Kei. There is a huge yard out back to mess around in and I'm sure Shiromaru and your future ninken are going to enjoy it just as much as we will. I had thought dad had sold the place when we moved out, but I'm glad to hear he didn't. "
His remarks made Keitaro think about the fact that his brother would have been around three or four old when they would have moved away from the clan. It must have been quite a shocking change for him to move from what sounded like a spacious luxurious home, and from amongst the peopleand friends that he must have grown up with, to a smaller run down place in the middle of nowhere.
"Yeah I had though about selling it back then, but no matter what it was you moms ancestral home. There was no way I would be able to face her in the great beyond if I did something like that."
The conversation died down as the quickly ate their breakfast as they quickly went upstairs to pack away their things.
There really wasn't all that much of a hassle in terms of moving, simply because their father had procured several storage scrolls to transport their things. It was interesting seeing him place the scrolls on the ground or on top of the couch and waving his hands around for a bit before in a puff of smoke the couch was gone.
"How long can you keep stuff inside the scroll?" With his curiosity getting the better of him, Keitaro couldn't help but to ask.
"Well this one will probably only last about three days or so. Different scrolls have different requirements and constraints. This isn't a high quality sealing storage scroll, so the amount of things that can be stored and the duration that they can be held is quit limited."
Kuma tucked the scroll into a pocket of his jacket before pulling out another and unfurling it to store a few other things.
"Not to mention that these lower quality ones are also only usable for a certain number of times. After about three uses, they'll degrade to much to be of use anymore. But they are relatively affordable for shinobi, and as long as you have decent chakra control, even a civilian could use them. The hardest thing to deal with when talking about chakra scrolls, would be their small quantities due to their limited supply."
They didn't have to many things to store away so the three hadn't taken too long to get ready for the move. If anything, the most time consuming room had been the study, as there were several books and important pieces of paper that couldn't be stored inside of the scrolls.
Those items where to be delivered to their new home by a moving company that Kuma had employed and once they were certain that everything had been taken care of, the three left their home and made their way over to the clan compound at the edge of the village.
It didn't take long for the three to be standing Infront of a beautiful peace of property. It was two story home that had the traditional Japanese style. The garden out front had been meticulously maintained as the trees and shrubs where all thick and full.
Keitaro had been expecting to have to spend a few days cleaning up around the house, given that no one had lived in it for such a long time, but this was completely contrary to his expectations.
The same way that the exterior of the house had been maintained, so to was the interior. There wasn't even the musky odor that was characteristic of homes that hadn't been lived in for long periods of time. Heck, there was hardly even a speck of dust in the first place.
Confused at the state of the house, Keitaro turned towards his father who was already pulling out scrolls and putting the furniture in place.
"Have you been taking care of the place even though we weren't living here?"
Kuma nodded his head while still focusing on the scrolls in front of him.
"I told you, this is your mothers ancestral home. She inherited it from her parents who died during the third great Shinobi war, and they inherited it from their parents before them as well. Even if we weren't living here, I still had a responsibility to keep the place in good shape."
Keitaro left his father to unpack the rest of the things in the house and instead began to explore around his new home. He looking into the kitchen and saw that is much more spacious then the one before, the living room was the same as well, with large windows that allowed lots on sunlight to filter into the room. There was even a dedicated dinning room, something that they didn't have before as they would usually eat at the kitchen table in the corner of the old kitchen.
It was a truly beautiful home, and Keitaro could almost imagine how things would have been if not for his mothers death. He and his brother running all through the house, maybe running away form their mother who was trying to catch them so that she could put them in the shower. Playing together outside in the backyard with the new ninken pup Shiromaru, as he got accustomed to his new home with everyone. Learning and training under the watchful eye of their mother and father, as they enrolled in the academy.
All happy things that had never had a chance to come to pass.
Keitaro soon found himself in what he assumed was the study, though he though that calling it a library would have been more fitting. There where bookcases covering every wall of the room with even more storage areas filled with papers and books.
Sadly while all the other rooms of the house had been kept clean, this study was anything but. All throughout the room, there where papers and books scattered all over the floor. Broken ink wells were scattered over the floor where the long dried pools of ink had stained the wooden floors and ruined a few sheets of paper.
Even in the mess that was before him, Keitaro was able to notice a particular book case that stood out and seemed out of place. While the other book cases still had a few books and scrolls, this one was the book case that was completely empty.
Keitaro assumed that this was the areas of the study where the clan's techniques and jutsu had been stored, as its current vacant state would have ben the result of the Clan 'reclaiming' their things.
It must have been hard on his father just coming into the room and being reminded of how little he mattered in the grand scheme of things to the clan. That would explain why every other part of the house had been taken car of, except here. Though he did notice an inconspicuous clearing in near to one of the walls, that was just large enough to place the large Oak desk from their old study into.
"I'll get around to cleaning in here in a bit."
Keitaro turn to look at the door and saw his father standing there while looking around the room. His whole body seemed stiff and his voice was devoid of any emotion, but Keitaro could see the pain in his eyes.
"Do you think you could leave it to me?" Keitaro asked worried that it might be to much for his father to handle.
"No, its alright. I already planned to deal with anyway, just might take me a while to get in the right head space…"
Keitaro wadded through the discarded papers and books skewed across the floor until he stood directly in front of his father.
"I don't mind doing it for you. I want to clean this place up. I was the only one who used the study anyway, so this is my chance to organize the place however I want. Have a little faith in me okay?"
Kuma stared at Keitaro or a moment before sighing and shaking his head. He chuckled to himself and patted Keitaro on the head before turning away.
"Alright then, I'll leave it to you."
With that he disappeared down the hall way, leaving Keitaro to his own devices. He turned back to the disordered room, and couldn't help but smile to himself.
'No worries dad, I do intend to clean up the place but I'm sure there is still a lot of things here that wouldn't have been of any importance to the clan, but might be useful for me to use for my own studies. Who knows, I might even find a hidden stash of jutsu or something. Wouldn't want you hiding away too many things from me now would we.'
