8 Birthday

Dix ha been moved from his room, which only had a single cradle in it, for a while now. Elma decided due to his rapid mental 'growth', and because he was able to move around fairly consistently, that he should get another room with a comfy bed and other proper furniture. Even though he was a bit shunned for what he is, the Third wanted to do everything for him to live a comfortable life, so while other kids were living together, usually four or more in a room, he got his own private chamber, probably a vacant caretaker's quarters. Once again, this didn't help him cross the distance he had between his peers, but Dix couldn't care less, he was just glad for the comfort he was given. He didn't expect this much, so he was pleasantly surprised.

So when Elma have showed up with the kids in his room he could see the jealous look on their faces. They knew he was special in some way and got a different treatment then they did, but they also noticed the caretakers actually didn't like him, so they just simply couldn't wrap their heads around this. Dix was sitting on his bed meditating, which was one of his creepy features nobody understood, so the 'party' started with a bit of frown from the guests part.

But not from Elma, she was already used to it so she just entered and sat down at the table, which Dix could've used if he had any way to reach it with his tiny body. Around ten more children walked into the room behind Elma, mostly boys, with two exceptions. Dix didn't have the intention to learn their names before, but with how they live together and see each other most of the time, the names of most of the other orphans got stuck to him. Thus he could tell who came to greet him.

By the way Dix had a hard time deciding whether he should use Naruto's name or try and with a ton of work change how others address him and use his own name from before. This would've been unnatural for sure and would cause a lot of brows to rise. For now he didn't really care so he was stuck with everyone calling him Naruto, but this might change in the future. Sometimes this little difference made him not react for quite a few seconds when he was called for, which was another one of his creepy behavior, but by now he is mostly used to it and can react appropriately. Back to the event, obviously Elma was the one to open the flow of conversation, after everyone greeted each other.

"Naruto, do you know why we all gathered together?" she asked with a heartwarming and glowing smile. Dix tried to show his best confused acting and shook his head. The other kids were a few years older then him so they knew how these parties supposed to go, but now they could only force some awkward smile on their faces. Elma didn't seem to notice anything so she just started explaining.

"We usually keep track of when each of us are born, and when a whole year passes, we all gather together to celebrate the day of their birth! It's called a birthday party! Isn't that just lovely?" she said with an even more lively face as she looked around the room at the other children and they nodded back dutifully. Dix hearing this tried to make an even more confused face, if that's even possible, and even tilted his head and touched his chin with his tiny index finger while asking "Biwthdaiy...?"

Elma started nodding extensively and repeated the word to show the proper pronunciation. "Yes, birthday, and today its your birthday! This is a happy day when we can be happy together, you'll even get some cookies and we'll sing for you, how does that sound?" she said, still smiling so wide like that's the last thing she can do in her life.

Dix had a hard time mimicking the dumb expressions and behavior of a one year old, so he just tried to react to his environment to the best of his abilities. He saw Elma smiling so he broke out a wide smile too while trying to keep hints of the confusion. At the end of her explanation he even tried to clap a bit in his happiness with another "Biwthdaiy!" to keep Elma content.

She let out some light-hearted laughter with a few fingers covering her mouth and continued. "You might not completely understand it for now, but lets leave it for later and celebrate together for now!" With that she turned to the other kids and said "Come on little ones, lets sing him a nice song, okay? One, two, three..!" During the song Dix was still sitting on his bed and tried to look happily at the singing crowd, but the more he looked at them the more he looked trough them. He tried to be as cheerful as possible but he still did not really care, he was just trying to play along, and everyone present could notice the lack of that certain glimmer in his eyes that any other kid would have when people come to celebrate with them. His eyes were simply cold and uncaring. Elma noticed this too, but continued on, hoping that one day, with enough care and affection, he will become a happy little child like the others.

With the song done, Elma signaled to one of the two girls that came to attend the event, and she brought forward a small tray with some sort of cookies on them, with one bigger in the middle which had a single candle on it. She handed Elma the tray who put it down on the table next to her. She gave the big one to Dix first and told him he shouldn't drop it because they worked a lot with it, then started handing out the smaller treats to the others.

With that done she turned back to Dix, put her hand on the candle and with a bit of concentration she used her chakra to light it. This actually surprised him, as he had no idea just anyone can use fire release without hand seals and without much effort to light things, even if its just a single candle. As a matter of fact, he knew that usually only at least chuunin or higher grade ninjas are capable of something like this. This was the first time he looked up at Elma with true confusion and curiosity.

"Hahaha, don't worry about it, its just a trick, you might learn it later, we'll see! Now go ahead and blow the candle away, this is the traditional way of celebrating one's birthday." Dix nodded, as he focused back on the tiny light that surprised him so much. He actually never tried blowing with his new body before, so he had no idea how things will work out. Putting his worries behind him he just tried his best, and it worked somewhat well. The candle was blown away at the end, but mostly due to the great amount of saliva landing on it, rather then the generated wind.

By now the atmosphere was a bit better so the others started cheering and clapping together with Elma when the candle was finally blown away. Everyone started shouting 'Happy Birthday' then ate their share while Elma helped Dix get the wax off of his treat. When everyone ate their cookie the kids tried to make some small-talk or play something but the mood went downhill again. Soon the kids started making excuses just so they can leave, some would even go and do their chores just to be somewhere else.

As the last of the kids took their leave, only Elma and Dix was left. They sat next to each other in silence. Dix had a bit of annoyed look as he would rather go back to work hard toward his goals, and wanted this day to be over already. Elma could see his sour mood so she just pat his head and stood up.

"Okay, okay, I'll leave you now, you seem to want me go, so I'll let you be. You really should try to find your way with the others though, try to get some friends. I know its not easy, but you should try anyway." She didn't know why shes trying to explain something so complicated to a one year old, but she could strangely feel that he understands it. She wasn't able to put her thumb on this nagging feeling, so she just proceeded out of the room. As she closed the door she looked back and gave a last 'Happy Birthday' to Dix.

He, on the other hand had no idea what to think. Its been a while since he celebrated his birthday and Elma tried to be nice to him, which was good, and he even felt a sting of guild when she left because of his behavior, but he still couldn't care much. He tried his best to immerse himself into that feeling, trying not to just act like he enjoys other's company, but actually enjoy it. Many events ran trough his mind, and at the end he came out of it like he always did. He was simply unable to care, and was unable to change. With that out of his head he assumed his natural meditative pose and dived back into his work.

Inside Dix Kurama was saddened at what he had seen. This was the first time he was sealed into a newborn. Usually they were young ninjas or expendable elderly people. He had seen how his hosts were treated after he was sealed into them. But that was different, this time it was just a simple child and the same thing happened as before. He just couldn't fathom how a ruling race of the world, such as humanity could be corrupted to its core like this. He was simply sad, and was reinforced in his beliefs, which generated nothing but more and more hatred.