"Well, my mother came from the Uchiha clan. She was just an ordinary person with no Sharingan and no noble bloodline.
She was not a shinobi, just a simple woman. Everything fell apart when she was exiled for being pregnant with an outsider's child, and the man rejected the pregnancy.
She gave birth to me and later married into the Gekkō clan.
I was two years old when she gave birth to the man she married.
She watched as I was abused by the other women in the clan. She even cursed my existence, saying I was the one who brought her bad luck.
She gave birth to her second son, but she never let me introduce myself to him as a sister. Instead, she forced me to act as their slave.
When I was five years old, I was not allowed to train with the other children. They said I did not belong to their clan.
I could not do anything because I had no friends until I started attending the shinobi academy. That was where I became friends with Rika Uchiha and Tsume Inuzuka."
"Who is Tsume Inuzuka?" Megumi asked. He could not remember clearly who that was, but the Inuzuka clan name was familiar.
Kaede paused, went to the roadside, and got both of them a dango stick.
Megumi did not enjoy sugary food that much.
"She is the head of her clan now, and the mother of that girl who came when I was on a mission," Kaede explained.
"Oh, you mean Hana was your friend's daughter. Wow," Megumi said, remembering the girl who would become a baddie in the future.
Megumi licked his lips, not because of the dango stick in his hand, but from imagining him and Hana's future.
"Okay, let's continue walking." Kaede could not tell why Megumi was spacing out again.
"After seeing how their family treated me, I asked to leave the clan under any terms and conditions they wanted.
I was told my mother had agreed to marry me to a Gekkō prodigy. If I wanted to leave, I would have to pay fifty million ryō as compensation for breaking the contract."
Megumi was shocked after hearing this. Why can't I just live a normal life without being trapped in debt, he thought.
"How much have you paid back?" Megumi asked, his heartbeat quickening.
"Ten million," she replied, not even looking back at him.
"What! Ten out of fifty? I'm dead. Why, why?" Megumi muttered inwardly.
"What if you don't fulfill the contract? What will happen?" Megumi asked.
Kaede turned and looked at him with a smile. "There is a consequence for not fulfilling the contract. And the condition is you, Megumi," she said, pointing at him. "How do you know about loans?" Kaede asked.
"How do you think I came to this world?" Megumi whispered to himself.
Since he did not answer, Kaede did not take it as disrespect. She was already used to her son's behavior.
"Don't worry. They will not come for you. As long as you still bear the name Nara, you are untouchable," Kaede assured him.
They arrived at Konoha prison after their little mother and son tour.
To Megumi's surprise, no ANBU or guards stopped them as they entered the building.
"Now you are walking into a place where the strong survive and the weak die," Kaede bent down and told him, explaining how he should behave during his sentence there.
Kaede unbuttoned her necklace, which had a ring on it. "This was the only gift your father gave me. You should keep it." She tied it around his neck and kissed his forehead.