The Things We Bury

Closer, closer; Kie licks her lips as a shuriken spins towards her, milliseconds away from her unprotected chest. The imminent danger has her heart racing with adrenaline and the metal just grazes her when—

Light floods her vision, dispersing her dream into a million shards and then to nothingness as she’s unwillingly dragged back into reality with a groan, eyes still tightly clamped shut, in an lousy attempt to hold on to the last seconds of her heated battle.

“Good morning!”

Kie grimaces at the cheeriness in her brother’s voice, feeling quite the opposite.

“Why can you not just shake me awake like a normal person,” she mumbles, turning over and shielding her head with her pillow, a weak attempt to block out the sun. It’s instantly snatched away from her.

“Because” Jun responds. “A ninja should—”

“Always be prepared” Kie groans and his grinning, albeit blurry, face comes into focus as she finally opens her eyes.

“So you do listen to me!”

“Not by choice.”

“Well,” Jun says, tossing her precious pillow to the side, far, far out of reach. “At least you’ve learned something!”

She rubs her eyes grumpily. “Yeah but I’m still failing to understand why I have to be woken up like an fifteenth century squire.”

“Remember last time I woke you up gently and then you proceeded to go right back to sleep the second I left the room?”

Kie sighs. “I was going to get up, I swear. I just needed an adjustment period.”

Jun sees right through that excuse.

“You can adjust on your feet!”

Kie frowns.

“One of these days I’m going to wake you up with a bucket of ice water. We’ll see who can adjust on their feet then,” she yawns, still in a foul mood. Nevertheless, she gets out of bed.

It wasn’t like she could fall back asleep without her pillow anyways. She casts one last long, pained glance at her warm bed before turning to follow her brother.

“So,” she asks, as she and Jun make their way to the kitchen. “What happens if I fail the exam?”

Jun looks down at her, clocking the slight hint of concern in her eyes and his lips twitch, unable to stand up the opportunity to poke fun at her.

“I’ll probably disown you. Then you’ll have to live on the streets.”

Kie laughs but shakes her head. “No but really. What if I don’t become a genin?”

It had been something on her mind the past couple of weeks. All this time training at the Academy just to not receive a headband, and of course there were quite a few of her classmates who wouldn't; The majority wouldn't. What if she was one of them?

“Then you don’t become a genin,” Jun shrugs like it’s the simplest answer in the world. “You can always try again next year.”

Kie blinks at him disbelievingly and he looks back, earnest to a fault.

“Honestly bug,” he says. “You know I don’t care if you fail. I'd almost rather you did with the way the world is right now. At least I know you’re safe here in the village but I also know that’s not the life you want. And I just want for you to be happy.”

Kie grins at the nickname. She went by a lot of names: Akira, Kira, Kie, but bug would always be her favorite.

It was special, something just for her and Jun and her heart swells a little. “Man, you are such a sap,” she groans, breaking eye contact, cheeks burning. “Seriously, how are people scared of you?”

Jun laughs, deep and hearty. “Being an A-ranked shinobi certainly helps with that.”

“Huh?” Kie tilts her head but Jun offers no further explanation and she doesn’t push it.

“Alright. Flapjacks?” He asks.

Kie nods. Duh. The pancakes were a tradition for the siblings, the breakfast of champions before any big milestones. It had been that way since she was a kid and it certainly didn’t hurt that Jun’s flapjacks were to die for.

As batter sizzles against the pan, Kie leans back against their green sofa. Her fingers play with one of many fraying seams.

The old thing had been there before she was born and she suspected it would be sticking around for quite a while longer. One of many remnants of her parents--everything in the house was.

Jun hardly touched anything other than what he had to and Kie followed his lead. She learned to tip toe about over the years, as if occupying a memorial rather than a home; A shrine devoted to the dead.

Her older sister was never so gentle, tearing through artifacts like a dinosaur let loose in a fossil site, but she was hardly to blame. Her sanity was never all too intact, not when Kie knew her. Jun says she used to be normal, used to be a model kunoichi, albeit a little annoying. But aren't all siblings?

Kie finds herself looking at a picture of Yumi on the mantle. There, her sister is no older than five, clinging onto their mother like a koala as Hana attempts to cook; She is grinning ear to ear. Kie often wonders if they would have been friends.

She is so caught up in her own thoughts, she hardly notices when Jun plops down beside her, with two plates of steaming flapjacks.

“Thinking about Yumi?” He asks as he passes over her plate, and Kie nods.

“I still don’t get it,” Kie responds.

"It" would be the night of her ninth birthday. The night where their tiny family unraveled for the second time.

Yumi had stormed into the house, mere seconds after Kie had blown out the candles on the cake Jun had made. The older girl reeked of sake and seemed to be searching for something. When that something was nowhere to be found, she stalked off into the night, taking nothing with her but for an old photograph: one of the five of them, taken shortly after Kie’s birth. The other two would only notice its absence weeks later, when the empty frame was found by Kie, the wood chipped and glass shattered.

Jun and Kie waited several a night on the porch steps for Yumi's return but it never came and never would in the following years. She really was gone.

Sometimes Kie still liked to sit on the porch until the sun broke the horizon. She pretended to have ignited a passion for stargazing but they both knew that was bullshit.

“I don’t either,” Jun sighs. “But that’s the way life goes, bug.”

After a few minutes of comfortable silence as they tear through their pancakes, Jun stands, empty plate in one hand. He uses the other to ruffle her hair.

“Alright, enough stalling. It's time to get ready,” he says. “Can’t be late.”

Kie sighs wistfully at having to abandon the sofa but stands too and Jun takes her plate for her, shooing her off, “Get moving!”

It only takes her a few minutes to pull together all she needs: clothes, utility belt, and a couple of pencils because the ones at the Academy were always dull.

When she comes back out into their living room, Jun smiles. “Look at you, all grown up” and Kie laughs in response.

“Don’t get all sentimental on me, old man.”

“Hey!” Jun splutters. “I’m only five years older than you are!”

She laughs and a guilty smile crosses over her face, his outrage reminding her that: “Oh yeah! I totally forgot to tell you but I promised Naruto that if he passed his exam, you would take us out for ramen since you’re such a great big brother and all,” she says, all in one, quick breath as if speaking faster might lessen the blow.

A look of confusion passes over Jun's face as his brain fully processes what she's just said then he physically deflates, his wallet wasting away before his eyes.

“Really?” he croaks in disbelief. “Naruto and ramen? Do you hate me?”

“Well,” Kie says, giggling nervously as she edges her way towards the door. “I should really be heading out now. Wouldn’t want to be late on such an important day, you know?”

“Akira Genji,” Jun says and she winces at her full name. His face is as stony as the Hokages' monument when he says, “You better hope for your own sake that boy fails his exam.”

She giggles as she turns the door handle. “Love you too Jun!”

Jun sighs dramatically as she slips out of the house but can’t fight a smile from taking over his face.

They really do grow up fast.