"Naruko froze in the hands of her kidnapper and was so terrified she couldn't even breathe. That is not normal," Vita said, putting her feet on the old man's desk, though she could just barely manage it at her size, and kicking back on her chair. The casual image was one meant to be threatening, with Graf Eisen swinging casually behind her. It was just such a natural way of doing negotiations and conversations with authority figures for the Wolkenritter that they just fell into it naturally, and the Hokage knew. He himself had several quirks, such as always facing away from his opponent, showing them his back to show them just how non-threatening he found them.
Neither took offense, and the Hokage continued to stare at the distant horizon through the large window at the back of his office. One-way, of course. The other side looked like a wall. The wonders of sealing.
"You're right… it's not normal," Sarutobi said, shaking his head. "But… that is a story that is Naruko's to tell, when she is ready. Don't you think?" he asked.
"My mistress is many things," Vita explained, "amongst them is stubborn. She will never talk about it. She will continue to pretend it never happened. To be frank, her powers of self delusion are incredible. It's almost as if she'd forgotten those events entirely," she mentioned.
"…Impressive, for sure, but not particularly soothing to the soul to hear," Sarutobi said, evenly. "I trust you understand, before your arrival, her life was… a harsh one," he said, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. "She has never truly enjoyed life. Much of her time was spent alone… other children didn't wish to play with her. She was weak, she was fragile, and she was also… believed to be the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi. Due to her weak constitution, people feared she would fail as a container."
"And so children didn't go near her," Vita said, "because their parents warned them not to. So she had no friends growing up, that doesn't explain—"
"The only people she ever spoke to were her caretakers. Since a very young age, she had to be taken out of the orphanage. At five years old, children begin their induction into the ranks of the Shinobi. By age six, we knew she would never be able to use chakra… and so she was removed from the orphanage and given her own home. Graciously donated, of course. The least we could do for her constant sacrifice," Sarutobi explained, grimacing. "Along the way, she had a small ring of caretakers. Two civilians and three ANBU."
"And now we're hitting the vein," Vita said, sitting straight on her chair. "I am going to assume this did not go as well as you expected it to."
"It did not. The two civilians were a couple. They appeared mentally stable, they appeared loyal to Konoha, and they appeared not to hold any ill will towards Naruko… and they didn't. They were supremely afraid of her, and they were also supremely afraid for her. They… couldn't deal with the pressure, and eventually quit their mission. This left Naruko in the care of her ANBU guards full time. Two years later, however…"
Vita grimaced. She didn't want to hear of bad things happening to her mistress, but she needed to. She had to know.
"On Naruko's eight birthday, this village faced a great tragedy. It came to be known as the Uchiha Clan Massacre. One of the Uchiha's number, Uchiha Itachi, went completely insane and turned his sword on his clansmen, slaughtering them all. Man, woman, child—he spared none. None… but one," Sarutobi said, taking a deep breath, tasting in the smoke from his pipe. "Until that night, Uchiha Itachi was an ANBU. One of my most trusted agents, in fact."
"If he laid a hand on her—"
"From what I know, the last night he visited her, he did not," Sarutobi explained. "However, I couldn't quite replace him then. People began to believe she was… cursed. The first couple sent to watch her had a nervous breakdown, and one of the ANBU that watched her, a rising star even, went completely insane. People were blaming her."
Vita sucked in a breath. "Idiots… She wouldn't harm a fly…" Vita muttered.
"One of her two remaining ANBU guards quit right then," Sarutobi explained. "Apparently, he said some mean things to her as he left and… well, he hasn't been ANBU since."
"The last one…"
"Is the source of this trauma. The situation you described… matches how Naruko lost her last ANBU guard. You must understand, the last remaining ANBU guard had been with her practically since her birth, he was for all intents and purposes except blood her big brother. The details are unimportant. What you need to know is that Naruko was taken captive once, and in saving her… Her protector gave his life, taking a lethal attack for her."
"So Naruko… didn't fear for herself," Vita mentioned, her eyes closing. "She feared for me..?"
"Naruko doesn't fear death. She never has. Years ago, she'd have welcomed it with open arms. What Naruko fears, above anything and everything else… is being left alone again."
Naruko frowned. She was definitely feeling odd. It wasn't a painful sort of odd… she was just… full of energy, and she didn't know what to do. She'd already spent most of the morning just casting and casting and casting, trying to see if she could tire herself out. At least then she'd be able to stop bouncing in her seat as she waited for everyone to come in for breakfast. She'd noticed that her levels of energy had been steadily rising, but she didn't want to trouble anyone. Last night had been the worst, she'd flat out had problems sleeping. Normally, she reached the end of the night utterly exhausted, but she'd been sleeping later and later, and she'd had to spend the entire night tossing and turning in her bed.
Fortunately, her bedmates for the night had been entirely open to the idea of a pillow fight. Even if Zafira had totally smacked everyone and shown why you don't ever challenge him to a pillow fight, Naruko had actually managed to outlast her knights's stamina.
That was… insane, to say the least.
Well, considering how weird it was for all four of them to agree to share a bed with her, it was a weird night to begin with. They hadn't even protested, and seemed eager to do it. Vita seemed to even cling to her, for some reason.
The time spent wondering whether they might have done something incredibly stupid and they were feeling guilty didn't help her find sleep, either.
Fortunately, she didn't wake up tired even though she hadn't slept very much. In fact… she woke up fully rested and refreshed, almost as if she'd had a good eight hours of sleep. For someone who usually slept closer to ten hours every night and still woke up with the feeling of exhaustion she went to sleep with, this was a completely new experience.
Unfortunately, she couldn't even enjoy cuddling with her knights in the morning, as she just couldn't stay still. She'd wound up eventually coming down and taking all the time she had from waking up so early to cook the most elaborate breakfast she'd ever made for them, and even added extra portions for Nanoha and Fate, and she still had nothing even resembling tiredness creeping up on her.
Nanoha and Fate seemed to be particularly happy that morning, and they revealed it was because they'd finally be getting their devices back. And also, it was the time that Lindy would come to speak with the Wolkenritter directly, presenting all the neatly prepared evidence so that the Book of Darkness incident could be made to rest. "So that means you're leaving, then..? Are you… happy because you're leaving?"
"Not at all," Nanoha countered, instantly frowning. "Why would you think that?"
"They're all the same," Naruko said, eyes closed. "Everyone leaves, eventually. You're no different, are you?"
"What!? Of course we won't leave you alone, we're your friends!" Nanoha protested.
"But you're leaving me!" Naruko yelled, stomping her foot, "just like all the rest… you can't be my friends, you're just gonna leave like everyone else…"
"We're your friends, Naruko-chan," Fate said, trying to reach a hand to touch Naruko's shoulder, but her fellow blonde shook her off. "We can't live here. We have families and other friends—"
Naruko scoffed.
Nanoha frowned. A rich girl… probably'd had quite a few fake friends who only wanted to be with her for her money, she reasoned. Alisa and Suzuka had that problem fairly often, until eventually they gave up on forming friendships when people approached them, instead resigning to the fact that they'd have to approach people they wanted to befriend on their own. Or wait for Nanoha to beat them up, anyway. "Listen, Naruko-chan, just because we're going back to our homes doesn't mean we won't visit you…"
However, Naruko simply turned around and left, leaving them both perplexed.
Shortly after, they began to hear multiple castings of the same spell over and over again. Apparently Naruko was angry, because she was casting Bloody Dagger over and over again. As Nanoha and Fate rushed to the yard that separated the Dojo from the main house, they gasped as they saw Naruko casting spells upon spells at the ground. There was a sizable hole in front of her.
"It appears Mistress has reconsidered the idea of a pool," Zafira noted, dryly, as he stepped into view. "But I am still interested in learning just what is going on here."
It was interesting to note he had a rather large mug of coffee in one hand, showing he'd stopped by the breakfast table.