Chapter 86: Uchiha Gathering!
[Kaede POV]
"Don't worry, Eri, everything will be fine," I comforted my little sister.
Eri nodded as she clutched her pendant tightly. Today was when students in UA were allowed to return home and spend New Year with their families. All the Uchiha would gather at my grandparent's home that day. My obaa-chan and ojii-chan had six children, including my dad, so many people will be there.
However, there will be some unique cases like Shisui's family where they will visit their other grandparents first and meet the Uchiha relatives later. This was the same for us as we would meet mom's relatives in a few days, but sadly, I won't be there this time. The high-end incident forced UA to increase its securities again...
I sighed dejectedly at the thought. Even if I knew it was for our safety, it was still slightly annoying not to be able to go out... Anyway.
Today's gathering was extra special because Eri will be officially introduced to the rest of the Uchihas. They were already informed of my little sister and were pretty excited to see her, but that didn't stop Eri from being nervous.
Our family was on a bullet train on our way to our grandparents' residence. They live in a big house in front of a beautiful forest in the countryside located at the top of Japan. Since it's winter, there's snow everywhere, creating majestic scenery that gives people a peaceful feeling.
When we arrived at the station, we took a taxi for the rest of the journey and could already see many movements inside the house. Most of my relatives have arrived, and they must be setting up the dining room. Immediately as soon as dad opened the door, five children rushed up to me.
"Kaede-onee-san's here!"
"Kaede-onee-san!"
"Quickly, Kaede-onee-san, come and play with us!"
[3rd POV]
Kaede chuckled as the small children crowded around her: "Hey, Hana, Akari, Ren, Izumi, and Haruto." Kaede greeted and she patted each of the children's heads.
They were Kaede's cousins. Every time she visits, Kaede will play with them, so they love her very much.
"Kaede-onee-san is so cool when she fought those bad monsters!" Akari exclaimed with admiration as the rest of the children nodded.
They had seen Kaede and Itachi fighting the high ends on the news, and their respect for Kaede soared through the roof. Kaede blushed and smiled as she felt embarrassed by the praise.
"Come on, let's play!" Haruto urged with excitement and he tried to drag Kaede with him.
"Sorry little guy, I can't play right now." Kaede patiently explained.
Hearing this, the children were disappointed, but they didn't stop her. Their eyes suddenly widened when they noticed Eri holding Kaede's hand as she led her into the dining room.
The children were curious to know who the little girl was and they quietly followed along. Many people were in the process of setting up the table when Kaede and Eri entered the dining room. Eri's stress was at its peak, and she could feel all eyes were on her. The only thing that was keeping her calm was her big sister, who was gently guiding her across the room.
An elderly couple sat and laughed happily at the other end of the table while watching the Uchihas. They were Kaede's grandparents, and their names were Akira and Kenji. Even if they're pretty old, they were still decently lively as the two used to be police officers working in the same squad, and they fell in love.
"Ojii-chan, Obaa-chan!" Kaede excitedly went to her grandparents and hugged them.
"Wow, Kaede, you have grown the last time I've seen you!" Kenji exclaimed.
"You're turning into a fine young lady!" Akira added and she pinched her granddaughter's cheeks.
"Heh heh." Kaede giggled merrily at their comments.
"Long time no see, Father and Mother-in-law," Mikoto said as she and the rest of Kaede's family arrived.
"Ah, it's nice to see you again, Mikoto; how have Fugaku been treating you?" Akira greeted and glanced at Fugaku with a raised brow.
Mikoto laughed: "Don't worry, Fugaku has been treating me well, or else he won't be alive if he doesn't." she joked.
Together, the three laughed as Fugaku was sweating and he couldn't tell whether his wife was serious or not. When Kenji and Akira calmed down, they turned their heads at Itachi: "So have you found a woman yet?" They asked with hope.
But to their disappointment, Itachi shook his head, and they sighed tiredly. They always thought that Itachi would be the first of their grandchildren to get married, but they seemed to have guessed wrong.
However, Kaede quickly leaned in and whispered into their ears. Hearing this, Akira and Kenji's eyes lit up again, and they looked at Itachi with surprise. Itachi was greatly confused by their reaction as Kenji and Akira didn't want to disclose what they just talked about, so he could only use his imagination.
When the friendly greetings finished, their eyes fell on Eri, nervously hiding behind Kaede. Their gaze softened: "This must be my grandaughter that I kept hearing about..." Akira said with a soft tone.
"Do you mind introducing yourself to everyone?" Kenji asked.
Eri was scared, but her face was full of determination, and she nodded. Kenji smiled and calmly held up his hand; everyone immediately stopped what they were doing. Kaede turned Eri around as she faced the crowd.
Eri gulped and took a deep breath: "My name is Eri, and I'm delighted to be meeting all of you!" Eri nervously introduced herself and cutely bowed.
'Cute…' The adults all thought in unison, watching Eri's greeting.
The children were watching with excitement at the thought of a new friend to play with. Eri opened one of her eyes to look at everyone's reaction.
The rest of Uchiha laughed, and each of them greeted Eri back. Saying that Eri was happy was an understatement. She was ecstatic. Eri was grateful that no one complained of her not relating by blood.
Kaede and her family were relieved. They know that Eri won't be rejected, but there's still a tiny amount of worry in their heart.
"Woah, Eri-chan, let's play!" The five children burst out of the crowd and encircled Eri.
Before Eri could respond, Izumi dragged her away.
[Eri POV]
"Follow me!" A girl with long black hair exclaimed and she pulled me along.
We reached the backyard, and all of us ran toward one of the bushes: "We will be crawling!" The girl explained as the children crawled into the bushes, leaving me behind.
I didn't want to be left out, so I went after them. We reached the border of the fence, and there was a gap just big enough for us, so we all crawled through. When we arrived at the other end, Our knees and hands were covered with dirt and dust.
We all stood up, and my new friends started to introduce themselves:
The girl with long hair was called Izumi.
The boy with a plump face was called Haruto.
The girl with cat ears and a tail was called Hana.
The boy with slit eyes who always had a weird mature expression was called Ren.
Lastly, the girl with big round glasses was called Akari.
They all shared the same features of black hair and black pupils, contradictory to my white hair and red eyes.
"Where are we going?" I asked curiously.
"To our secret hideout, of course!" Haruto proudly declared.
They gestured for me to follow. We climbed hills and passed small streams as we strode further away from the house. We finally reached a small open meadow in the woods. There was a cave in the center with a giant tree growing on top as its roots and vines ran down the cavern entrance.
"Welcome to our secret base!" Hana excitedly shouted.
"Do the adults know this place?" I questioned while looking at it with awe.
"Other than big sister Kaede, nobody knows. Otherwise, it won't be a secret!" Haruto explained.
"Don't worry, Eri-chan, we are quite safe," Akari reassured me.
After telling me the basics, we start to talk about ourselves to get to know each other better. We then play games like tag for quite a while. Because there was snow on the floor, we also built a lot of snowmen and had a giant snowball fight.
Everything was going great until Hana's ear twitched, and she frowned. We suddenly heard loud rustling from the bushes near Ren. We all step away and a giant brown animal emerges from the greenery. It glares at us with a large snout and tusks growing from the side of its mouth.
It was a wild boar, and from the looks of it, it was mad!
The boar lowered his head and pointed its huge tusks at our faces. It pawed the ground with its feet as it got ready to charge, and all of us instinctively gulped in fear...
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I hope you enjoy it!