For the past couple of days, the genin took turns decorating the village for the festival. Putting up stands and decorations that stretched across the buildings were just two of the several things we had to do. By the time we were done, it was just a bit passed noon on the day of the festival, so the Hokage let us take the afternoon off to rest and get ready for the festival. I tried to sneak away so I could go home to sleep but when I was a mere eight feet away, my body froze.
“Shadow Imitation Technique; success.”
I sighed and glared in front of me, being unable to turn around to direct it at Shikamaru.
“Sorry for being troublesome, but Ino wouldn’t give me a rest. Just go with them and get it over with.”
“Are you serious?” I sighed again. Ino cheered and grabbed my wrist rather tightly so I couldn’t escape. Since the first day she mentioned the festival to me, the blond has wanted to take me for that girl’s night out thing. Shikamaru released the jutsu as Sakura and two other kunoichi I had met a few days ago; Hyuuga Hinata and Tenten approached me as well. “...Fine. But let me go.”
“Yes! Meet back here in an hour. Riku, if you ditch, I’ll send my entire clan after you.” Ino threatened with a victorious grin. For some reason, I got the feeling she wasn’t kidding. I decided that it was about time to give in, anyway. It was much better than having her pester me about it every day. Plus, if I didn’t go, who knows how much longer she would whine about it after the festival. I like to think I have a decent amount of patience, but I know I have my limits.
I spent the hour cleaning myself up. After washing my face and drying it, I tied my mask on, grabbed my wallet and keys, and then left the house to meet the others. I still didn’t see why I had to buy a yukata with them. It wasn’t that hard to get one myself. Maybe this was one of those ‘team bonding’ things Kakashi-sensei used to always tell me when I was with Team 7 – something I have yet to get the hang of.
Being the last to arrive, I was immediately dragged into a shop, since Ino didn't want to waste any more time. The shop was filled with a large assortment of hair accessories, earrings, and several rows of yukata to choose from. It literally took two minutes of being in the shop for me to have a dozen of them in my arms. I twitched at the sight and immediately dropped them.
“If you’re going to drag me around, at least let me pick out my own yukata.” I almost growled, stepping over the pile of floral and extravagantly patterned cloth. Ah, there's the limit.
Hinata and Tenten seemed saner than Sakura and Ino, however. Actually, Ino was the worst. Sakura just tried to convince me to try on what Ino had given me to wear but didn’t try to force me into a flamboyant yukata like my teammate did. The Hyuuga was incredibly shy but mustered up courage to show me a black one with a few sakura blossoms crawling up the bottom of the yukata and its sleeves. “H-how about th-th-this o-one?” Although I wasn’t very fond anything too flowered, I thanked the shy kunoichi. I didn’t mind just having a simple black yukata, but this store seemed a bit too extravagant for just a solid color.
While the others looked for their own things – I think they were looking for accessories or something – I walked up and down the aisle, picking out any black or dark-coloured yukata I could find. I didn’t mind the ones that were a dark red or white either, though the white ones were usually littered with flowers or something and the dark red ones were either far too big or far too expensive. I sighed and turned to the right to walk down the next aisle. A red yukata seemingly misplaced in a row of light-coloured ones caught my eye.
“This will do.” I murmured while giving it a good look-over. It was plain with a simple white pattern. Nothing to special, yet still decently appealing, I decided.
“Riku!” Ino exclaimed and ran over to see the yukata I was holding. She gasped and began pushing me towards a change room. “It’s a little boring, but it suits you!” I decided not to look too deeply into that comment and reluctantly let Ino pushed me into the changing room.
I sighed as the curtain was thrown shut behind me. I stared at my disinterested eyes in the mirror before giving in. I hadn’t planned on trying it on because it seemed fine to me, but since I was already there, I gave in and changed. Somewhat hesitantly, I slowly pulled the curtain to the side to see the other four kunoichi waiting. My teammate was rather impatient and pulled me out by the wrist and squealed.
“It even matches your hair!” She exclaimed while clapping her hands together. “Here, put this obi on.” Ino demanded while strapping it onto me. It was white with a red line going through it, matching the yukata. “Perfect!”
“R-Riku-chan, you l-look v-v-very...p-pretty...!” Hinata complimented with a timid smile. Sakura and Tenten nodded in agreement. It was very nice of them to say so, but I wasn’t sure how to take the comment. Now that I thought about it, I don’t remember ever being called pretty. They don’t know what I look like with my mask on all the time, and I was sure they would say otherwise once they knew what I was hiding beneath it. What an odd bunch of kunoichi, saying those kinds of things anyway.
“You guys...” I sighed with a slight shake of my head. They seemed to listen rather intently to my words. “No, all you shinobi... Konoha's shinobi sure are weird.” I chuckled slightly and surprised not only the four kunoichi, but myself as well.
There was a brief paused before I was suddenly jerked forward when Ino and Sakura attacked me from behind. “Do that again!” Sakura laughed with her arm around my shoulders. “You laughed, didn’t you? You know, I don’t think I’ve ever heard you laugh before.”
My attempts to get out of their grip failed and it was only harder to move when Tenten joined in. “I knew this would be fun, even for you!” Ino announced with a satisfied grin. I rolled my eyes as the three released me. Although Hinata didn’t join the ‘attack,’ she laughed quietly at the scene with her hand covering her mouth rather timidly. Fun? I thought while glancing at the others.
“…Yeah.” I murmured mainly to myself, seeing as they were already back to browsing the store. “I suppose this is pretty fun.”
The village was beautiful at night. All the lights were turned on and decorated the buildings. Villagers were everywhere, eating kebabs or playing small games at the stands. I couldn’t find a single person who wasn’t enjoying themselves and smiling. The atmosphere put me in a relaxed, content mood.
In record time, my team found me wandering around the streets with no particular place to go. There was something about a meeting place, but I wasn’t paying attention and never found out where to go. Ino scolded me for not knowing where to meet up, but I ended up finding them, anyway. Shikamaru was there, too, and we greeted each other with a nod.
The first place we visited a barbecue restaurant, of course. Chouji insisted that we went there for the festival as our main meal and Asuma-sensei offered to pay. When we arrived, the Akimichi immediately began placing orders while Ino carefully chose dishes that had less fat in them, or something along those lines. She wanted to watch her figure. Asuma-sensei asked if I would like anything in particular. “Uhh...lamb, I suppose.” I answered, deciding that since he asked, I’d might as well order something. Shikamaru was sleeping as we ordered and when he woke up, he sighed, complaining about how he didn’t order anything.
“You can take some of my dish,” I offered, “I’m not very hungry, anyway.”
“Eh...it’s alright.”
Despite his subtle rejection, Asuma-sensei nearly forced some meat onto the lazy-ass’ plate. He complained about getting somebody else’s food, which then led me to reassure him about a dozen times that it was alright. As I reached out to take some slices of lamb, I realized the tension at our table seemed to rise. I looked up at the others and noticed that they all paused. I shrugged, not thinking much of it, and began to pull my mask down to eat.
The moment I did, the fire of our grill seemed to go berserk and black smoke didn’t let us see each other anymore.
“What the--!” I heard Ino shout. I almost got hit from her flailing her arms about. Not being very affected by the sudden chaos, I continued to eat my lamb as an employee came over and quickly dealt with the situation. The moment I was pulling up my mask, the smoke cleared. For some reason, the others looked incredibly disappointed, but I just couldn't figure out know why. After all, the meat was still edible and Ino's yukata wasn't ruined.
I shrugged and set my chopsticks down. I didn’t plan on stuffing myself too much in the restaurant because I wanted to try the festival foods. There’s this sort of rice patty called a mochi that would be filled with red bean paste and such. I've only heard of it during my travels, but never got to try it before.
When we began to enter the heart of the festival, I noticed rather quickly that it shouldn’t be so hard to find mochi. There had to be over a thousand different choices of food and snacks to chose from, as well as several games and stands that sold souvenirs and trinkets.
“O—i!” A loud, obnoxious voice called. We turned around to see none other than Naruto running towards us with his team behind him. It looked like they were pretending that they didn’t know him. I chuckled a bit to myself when I noticed it. “Whoa, Riku looks great in a yukata!”
“Hey, what about me?!” Ino shouted, shaking a fist in his face. In a split second, however, she was all over the Uchiha. “How do you think I look, Sasuke-kun?” She cooed, throwing herself on her. I chuckled to myself, but remained uninvolved as Sasuke tried to get away from an angry Sakura and Ino, who were now fighting over him.
“Troublesome women...” Shikamaru sighed. I could only nod in agreement.
“Have you been enjoying yourself, Kakashi-san?” Asuma-sensei asked with a hearty laugh while lighting a new cigarette.
The grey-haired jounin laughed meekly in response. “Maa... it’s been… interesting.” He answered while looking back at the chaos that seemed to appear so suddenly. He soon redirected his attention to me. “Are you having fun, Riku?” His one-eyed smile seems to be the thing that defines him, as it was present once again.
For some reason, the chaos over Sasuke seemed to end at those words and Sakura released Ino’s hair and the Uchiha’s arm. “Oh yeah, this is Riku’s first festival, right?”
“It is!” Naruto shouted, suddenly closing in on me and grinning widely. I quickly took a step back and nearly punched him away as a reflex. “Hey, hey! Let’s do what she wants to do for the night!”
“But I don’t—” I started, but the others were already agreeing on this idea, one way or another. “I don’t have anything in mind.” I blurted out the moment they calmed down.
“Nonsense, there’s plenty to do tonight.” Asuma-sensei announced with his cigarette clenched between his teeth. “Just let them take you around; you can’t escape them once they get excited.” He added in a lower murmur. I sighed heavily. He was probably right.
They began by gracefully – and by that I mean chaotically – tugging me along from stall to stall, picking up snacks and showing me several popular items of Konoha, like a fan made of special preserved leaves. Although I didn’t buy anything, I’d be lying if I said that the festival wasn’t amusing. Yeah, maybe even fun.
It wasn’t long before Naruto was pointing out a fishing stall. There was a long box made of wood that was full of water. Inside were dozens of goldfish and on the stall counter there were several plastic hoops with a thin sheet of paper over it. Chouji explained to me that if I took too long trying to get a fish, the paper would get too wet and would tear. Despite not really wanting to try, Kakashi-sensei took my hand and slipped a net into it the others took one as well. I looked up at the masked jounin with slightly furrowed brows, but he simply urged me on with a gentle gesture towards the bin. With a sigh, I knelt before it to give it a go.
Naruto was the first to rip his net and he cried out despair when he did. I think he really wanted a goldfish. It was a few minutes later and only Shikamaru, Sasuke, and I still had our nets intact. I found it sort of amusing in its own way, seeing as we were the ones who were least interested in this game. Despite the fact, I kept my eye on the smallest goldfish in the wooden tank. Couching next to the tank, I brought my hand closer to the tank, somewhat following the fish with the hoop. With a swift motion, I slipped it in and pulled up underneath the fish, surprising myself when I felt the weight of it as I brought my hand up.
“Riku caught a fish!” Sakura exclaimed cheerily. The old man manning the stall congratulated me as he caught the fish in a small bowl of water when the paper finally tore. “Aww, it’s so cute!”
“No fair! I wanted a fish.” Naruto pouted while crossing his arms.
I smiled victoriously and thanked the old man when he handed me the fish in a small plastic bag. Our time at the stall finished with Shikamaru getting a fish as well, but he gave it to Naruto, claiming that taking care of a fish would be too troublesome for him. I considered giving my fish to the blond idiot as well, but figured that I’d might as well keep something from the festival.
Our next stop was the Amenoukihashi River. I noticed that it was much quieter around this area. I spotted a few small boats made of leaves floating down the river, each with a straw doll inside, a piece of paper, and a symbol painted on the boat.
“This is an old tradition in Konoha.” Ino started as we approached the river. “It’s a way for the villagers to send a message to those who've passed on. The straw dolls are supposed to be like the messengers.”
“You have to make everything yourself, too, so then whoever you’re sending the message to won’t think it’s something foreign.” Sakura added with an informative look. “They say that spirits can tell by traces of ourselves left on the boat and such if it was really us who sent the message or not.”
I noticed Kakashi-sensei at the small altar making one of them. He seemed rather experienced because it took about two minutes for him to be done. I didn’t want to question to whom he was sending it to, so I turned back to the small boats flowing down the river. There were also some lanterns floating along as well to light up the way, I assumed. It was a calming sight.
“Do you send one as well?” I asked in a hushed tone to the Uchiha, purely out of curiosity. He answered with a slight glare, but answered, nonetheless.
“This is just a superstition.” He nearly growled. I stopped the conversation at that, not really wanting to continue anyway.
I thought about sending one for my clan and village, but decided against it. It just felt odd because I still felt like strangers to them. My dream showed me that Misaki is my mother and though I believe the visions I had, I just still couldn’t feel any emotional bond. I know enough to lay the foundation of my identity, but what I actually experienced during my childhood is still unknown.
After Kakashi-sensei set his boat in the water, we left. I glanced back just a bit to see that there were three names written on the boat. I couldn’t read the names, however, but decided that I would probably be getting to nosy with his personal life if I were to see them and then have the urge to question him about it.
It was nearing midnight by now. As we neared the centre of the festival once more, the music grew louder and the crowd grew thicker. I could hear several hand-drums as well as woodwinds and string instruments here and there. The streets even had some performers, like dancers and jugglers to entertain the pedestrians.
“Can we get something to eat? I’m hungry.” Chouji announced while holding his belly. We wondered how he could possibly be hungry seeing as he got something to eat at nearly every food stand we passed by, but decided that it was a good time to get a snack, anyway.
“There’re so many to choose from...what should we get?” Sakura asked while looking around. I could smell the sauce used on takoyaki and the scent of barbecued meat was overwhelming. We continued to make our way down the stands, gradually eliminating some of the choices before us. Then, I noticed a rather quaint stand with trays filled with colourful rows of small buns.
I guess I subconsciously slowed down because Asuma-sensei was asking me if I was alright. Ino caught on to what I was eyeing rather quickly and a huge smile spread across her face. “Riku wants to eat mochi!” She announced and grabbed my wrist. I was a bit worried that I was used to being tugged around now. Clearly it’s something that happens a bit too much.
“Wha—no, it’s alright, I was just—” I stammered and nearly tripped over my own foot. Oh, forget it. I couldn’t get away, and I did sort of want to try the mochi. I just didn’t want it to be such a bit deal or anything. Nevertheless, I began to scan the trays of confectionery. There were signs in front of them saying what was in the mochi. The more I read the list of flavors, the more it seemed like it was endless. Finally, I decided on four different flavors and got one of each. “I’ll take a red bean paste, green tea, ice cream, and soybean.” I ordered, pointing to each one as I did.
“Try them now!” Naruto urged when the lady behind the counter handed us our orders in small boxes. I had to lean back once again to stay at a comfortable distance from him.
“I think I can wait until I get home.” I answered while tucking the box into my sleeve. For some reason, some of them had that disappointed look in their eyes again.
The festive atmosphere returned and excited chatter spread across some of the genin. However, a sudden loud whistling pierced my ears and it was followed by a loud bang, scaring me half to death and causing me to cry out in shock. I jumped and nearly prepared myself to counter an ambush or something while cautiously staring at the lights falling in the sky.
“What the hell was that?” I gasped, feeling my heart pound against my chest.
I soon noticed how villagers were looking up at the sky with delightful expressions and that my teammates were hardly fazed at all. Seeing as they didn't have their guards up, I lowered mine as well and looked up in awe.
“Am I the only one who noticed the sky bombs?” I asked rather stupidly. Everybody just paused, stared at me, and gave me the most disbelieving look I have ever seen. “...What?”
“Riku…” Asuma-sensei started cautiously while gently holding me by the shoulders, “...Have you ever seen fireworks before?”
“I'm guessing it's something with fire that was... worked with. Is this some sort of fire type ninjutsu thing?” I inferred, having no idea what they were getting at. Another round of surprised and shocked expressions occurred. I narrowed my eyes impatiently. “Stop that.”
“Fireworks, Riku!” Naruto shouted while throwing his arms into the air. “This thing goes into the air and it’s all ‘boom!’ and then these lights appear and it’s like a giant flower in the sky and it’s super awesome and cool and colourful!” He explained quickly while using incredibly large arm gestures to empathize everything.
I slowly shook my head, giving everybody a confused look. Something that explodes in the sky and sends things falling to the ground didn’t sound very safe. “Anything that’s ‘all boom’ and causes flaming bits to rain over the village doesn’t really strike me as ‘super awesome’ or anything.”
I just wasn’t grasping the concept of the fireworks because this time, Sakura tried to explain it to me after shaking away her disbelieving expression. “Riku, trust us on this. That explosion is called a firework, and it's harmless.”
"...Alright." I spoke hesitantly, still doubting that something with the potential of being so dangerous could be harmless. “That doesn’t mean I like them, though. They’re pretty, but I don’t… I’m not a huge fan of things that explode.” I admitted, and as if to prove my point, another firework whistled into the air, causing me to tense up and flinch.
“Why don’t we find a place where we can watch from inside?” Kakashi-sensei suggested with an understanding smile. “You can still enjoy the view that way, at least.”
I nodded, feeling a little childish that the fireworks made me so tense to begin with. It was tolerable, but I would much rather I got away from it if I could.
All the excitement returned to the group, more or less, and we followed Shikamaru’s suggested of the Hokage’s Palace. Ah, yes. Invade our cranky Hokage’s office so we can watch the fireworks. Apparently that’s what respect from shinobi to Kage was all about in this village. It was no surprise that Tsunade-sama was annoyed to see everybody, but it was apparent that she was already watching them with Shizune-san and Tonton, anyway, so after some half-hearted scolding, we joined then by the windows.
“They’re so loud.” I murmured they continued to go off. I could still hear them, but it was muffled and quieter, so it was alright. “Are you sure those things are safe?”
“It’d be troublesome if they weren’t.” The lazy brunette answered while yawning.
Another loud explosion went off and I flinched. Whether they were pretty and harmless or not, I still didn’t like the exploding part.
As the fireworks lit sky one after another, I leaned back on my hands while staring up at the sky. I wondered why I couldn't remember such a vibrant this yet that barren wasteland triggered so many memories. I sighed, wondering if I had even been to a festival during my childhood but simply forgot everything about it. That seemed to be plausible. I must have at some point or another. I don't even remember my time with my mother, let alone a festival or two.
I suppose my expression was become too solemn for the festive atmosphere because Ino was soon pulling at my cheek, which immediately made me wince and swat my hand at her. "What the hell was that for?" I snapped, though my tone remained generally calm.
The blond kunoichi smiled back before using her two index fingers to push my cheeks up so that my eyes were slightly squinted. "See? Now you're smiling." She laughed, removing her hands before I smacked them.
"...Don't do that. You can’t even tell with my mask." I finally muttered while looking back up at the sky. Was that her way of cheering me up? I didn't really think I was in a slump to begin with, but I guess I subconsciously began to show it.
When I looked back at the plastic bag with my goldfish, I began to recall the events from the very beginning until this moment. A thought began to crawl its way to the surface of my thoughts as I remembered being placed on Team 10 or our encounter in Tetsu no Kuni. It was then when that thought began to take shape and I gradually came to realize something as I watched the sky light up with my new comrades.
I may have lost my previous memories, but that wasn’t going to stop me from making new ones.
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Chapter notes: Riku and co. take a break.
Chapter end notes: Thanks for reading :D Next up: the Chuunin Exams!