Naruto : Monsters: Chapter 19

"Honored Ancestor."

It was such a nostalgic feeling, hearing his voice again.

Like walking into your old childhood bedroom in the home you grew up in only to find it untouched since you last left it, your old game controller tangled up by the tiny tv set while pictures of half-remembered friends lined the walls besides posters of your favourite bands. 

Or a scent that sends your mind tumbling back to the past reliving old memories you were sure were forgotten. It was the warmth of being embraced by your mother after being away from home for so very long.

It was all that and more.

Yet I had no idea who he was.

Odd. How strange that I felt such kinship with this stranger before me and still, I couldn't help but ask myself 'How long has it been since I last heard him speak?'

Far too long.

It's been such a long time.

They say that when we died and entered heaven, you'd find all that you have ever loved and lost waiting to greet you. Fitting then that I would find him waiting for me in a paradise.

Around us the lush green valley echoed with the soothing sound of flowing water, the murmuring of a brook that danced through the heart of these lands and curved around our feet, fed by the distance falls. 

Tiny boulders dotted the valley floor and water's edge, large enough for a man to stand comfortably on them, while trees of endless green rose up all around us, casting their soothing shade over our from and onto the emerald grass beneath them.

Other than the soft murmur of the river, the only sound that could be heard were the birds singing as they greeted the coming dawn. In the entirety of my life, I had never seen a place so tranquil as this. Truly, what else could this place be called but paradise?

But my eyes saw none of it, drawn instead to the back of the man standing before me.

Though he faced away from me, his eyes set towards the distant falls, he knew I was there. Long raven locks fell from his head, cascading down all the way to the small of his back, strands of which danced in air as they were tenderly lifted by the breeze.

Then he turned, slowly, revealing a face that I hadn't seen in so very long and I felt overcome with nostalgia.

How long, how long has it been since I've last laid eyes upon this face?

I didn't know who he was, this stranger before me, but I still recognised his face. I felt it in the depth of my bones. The set of his eyes, the lift to his nose, way his lips curved just so, they were all so familiar to me. They reminded me of someone from so long ago, a treasured person who was once so very dear to me. One that I had not seen or heard from for a very, very long time.

I knew this man, this stranger I had never seen before, and I felt my heartache at the sight of him, my vision clouding as tears spilled down my cheeks.

Why? Why did looking at him hurt so much? Why did my heart feel like it was about to burst from the pain?

"Honored Ancestor," He spoke. An honest, open smile on his lips, as he gazed at me with those crimson-red eyes of his, before bowing deeply, moving with such grace it was almost inhuman, "You grant me a great honour with your presence. Though my home is but a humble one please feel welcome, for all within it is yours to command."

Who are you?

"Hmm," His eyebrows rose up in surprise, yet somehow, he even made that action appear elegant. "You do not know?" He looked perplexed, gazing at me with puzzlement before realization seemed to dawn on him and he nodded. "Ah, I see. It seems you have not fully awoken yet."

Awoken?

"Think nothing of it," he smiled at me, "for, in the end, it matters little. Please forgive the rumblings of this foolish man and do not concern yourself over the matter. 

Instead, allow me the honour of introducing myself to you." He held both his hands up before him, his left clasping his right which was formed into a fist, before bowing deeply once again.

"My name is O-"

...

"-karu. Psst, hey Hikaru. Hikaru, wake up!"

There was a light shove on my shoulder, as someone tried to shake me awake but I stubbornly ignored them and buried my face deeper into my arms, trying to get back to my dream. There was a pause followed by another shoved, then a second harder one, and the next thing I knew I was falling.

Ever had that feeling when you're just about to fall asleep in bed only to suddenly feel as if you were falling off a cliff and jolt awake? Well, I was experiencing that very same sensation except I was actually falling.

A loud thud echoed through the classroom as I crashed onto the ground, and the next thing I knew I was staring up at the room's white-painted ceiling as I laid sprawled out on my back from my spot on the floor. No, wait a minute, the ceiling wasn't white but a light beige. Huh, never noticed that before. Live and learn I guess.

"Hikaru," I tried turning my head to one side, an awkward motion seeing that pants had gotten caught on something on my way down and I was left half hanging off the chair with my legs still clinging on my seat while the rest of me was sprawled out on the floor, to find an exasperated Iruka looking down at me from the podium.

He bit back his first response and pinched the bridge of his nose, before waving towards my chair. "Just get back in your seat already."

Smiling sheepishly, I quickly scrambled onto my feet and, ignoring the laughter of my classmates, dropped back into my seat. It took a few more seconds for the room to quiet down again and for Iruka, who after one last long-suffering sigh, resumed his lesson.

Once I was sure it was safe, I jabbed my elbow into Naruto's ribs as she continued to snicker.

"What the hell was that for?" I hissed at her.

"Sorry, sorry," Naruto whispered back, though going by the way she wouldn't stop snickering, I didn't believe her, "I didn't think you'd fall out of your seat Hikaru."

I muttered something unpleasant under my breath but left it at that, knowing it was my own fault for falling asleep in class, something that I hadn't done since my first weeks at the Academy.

To be entirely fair that hadn't been entirely my fault. It was hard paying attention in class when I knew everything Iruak was trying to teach so well that I could have walked up to the podium and taught it myself. It was like being forced to learn the ABCs all over again in kindergarten, unbearably boring. You try sitting through something like that and not dozing off.

My inability to stay awake in class naturally infuriated Iruka, but he quickly learned there wasn't anything he could do about it. It wasn't as if the usual punishments would have worked on me. 

Sending me to stand in the corner did nothing but make me even more bored than I already was, which just exacerbated the issue, and he stopped making me run laps around the school once he figured out I actually preferred it over sitting in class.

Things finally started looking up when he realized that I wasn't lazy, just bored out of my mind because I found the coursework unchallenging. 

Once I demonstrated to him that I was years ahead of the rest of the class he immediately recommended me for a fast-track program, though I warned him how pointless it was to even try. Sure enough, my father shot that suggestion down almost as soon as the words left Iruka's mouth.

In other words, we were stuck with each other. A student with nothing to learn and a teacher with nothing to teach. However, we both tried our best to make the most out of the situation and came to an unspoken accord.

So long as I remained the top student in the class and didn't disturb the other students, Iruka was willing to look the other way if I pulled out a book to read. Which was great news for me as it meant I could actually learn something during my time at school, then catch up on my physical training when I got home.

It took a while but we eventually found a way to live with each other. That didn't mean we got along though.

Despite constantly being ranked number one in class I was never among Iruka's favourite students, and I doubted I ever would be. Can't say I blamed the guy, it was hard to be proud of a student whose accomplishments you had nothing to do with. 

Doubly so when said student outclassed everyone you personally taught by miles. Though to give credit where it's due, he had never treated me unfairly because of it. The guy really was an excellent teacher.

Still, I wouldn't have overreacted so badly to being woken up if it wasn't for that weird dream. What was that about anyway?

"So, why'd you wake me?" I asked, rubbing the sleep from my eyes while I resisted the urge to yawn.

"Ah, right," Naruto stopped her snickering as her face lit up with excitement. She quickly picked up two strips of paper that had been sitting on her desk and offered one to me, "Iruka-sensei passed these around. He said we should use it to-"

"To find out our chakra affinity." I finished for her, recognizing the chakra paper for what they were. Looking around I spotted several other students trying to use the paper with mixed results.

Internal chakra manipulation was an intuitive ability that came easily to most while external chakra manipulation, which was needed to activate the strips of paper, was far more difficult to accomplish. Most of my classmates weren't quite at the level where they could pull it off on their first try. Or even their second.

Naruto just pouted at me, "So you already knew." She crossed her arms and looked away. "It isn't fair. How come you always seem to know everything, Hikaru?"

"It's called reading Naruto." I told the girl, "You should try it sometime. If you'd only read all the books I keep giving you to study instead of the bare minimum I allow you to get away with, you'd know just as much as I do."

...

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