The Cloud Over The Leaf

I'm sitting in sezai again, this time inside of the house.

Mom's staring at me, but I'm not gonna look at her.

I'm not gonna lose Akumu, by any means!

"Hii!"

Nope!

"Hii! Look at me!"

"No!"

I can feel Mom getting mad, but I don't care!

[Hii. Maybe you should hear her out.]

'I really don't want to! I can feel she's gonna say something about you being too dangerous or something.'

[I did just bite a pretty powerful ninja's arm off and I'm pretty sure his summoning is probably dead. Give her the benefit of the doubt.]

'I guess that's fair. You bit his arm off?'

[Right off his shoulder.]

'Cool!'

I humor Akumu and decide to look at Mom.

.....Shit! I didn't notice she started to cry!

Damn, now I feel bad....

"Hii. How long has... Akumu been with you?"

"Since I was born."

Mom looks shocked to her that answer, but she seems to have no choice, but to accept it.

[You don't lie to her. You've never really lied to anyone really when I think about it.]

'Huh? I don't think I have either. Probably not the time for self reflection though.'

[Agreed. She's calling you.]

I look back up at Mom. She looks...a little frustrated.

"....Can you talk to Akumu?"

"Yep, we were talking right now."

"..... Can I talk to him?"

"......"

[Hii.]

  "...Fine."

Kaya braces herself, and flinched when I lifted my shirt.

Akumu starts to come out, slowly this time.

The air feels colder again and he just lays next to me once he's free. Whoa, I just got dizzy.

[Are you ok?]

I feel... a bit tired for some reason.

"I just feel a bit tired. That's all."

[Hmmm. We probably won't be able to separate as often once I'm fully grown. At least until you're bigger.]

"I see. Mom, are you ok?"

Mom seems a bit stunned to see Akumu coming out of my stomach. Well, I can't blame her though. It will be surprising no matter how you see it.

"Y-you better not hurt my baby!"

[Wouldn't dream of it. He's like my twin.]

"Huh. Now that I think about it..."

Mom put out her hands.

"I gave birth to a bouncing,baby boy. Not a black wolf pup!"

[Your loss. I was adorable.]

"I have to agree with him on that."

Mom holds her head with her hands. 

"You, aren't you suppose to be evil or something?"

[Pfft! Do I have to? It seems pretty tiring. I just want to sleep really.]

Mom seems to want to argue, but ends up sighing.

She sits down sezai in front of me and looks kinda glum.

"I, I apologize. I was a bit too hasty in judging you."

Mom lightly bows her head and pats mine.

"Akumu's a good boy, huh?"

"Yep! He's a wolf though, not a dog."

"Isn't it the same thing?"

[No! It is not! Better yet, I will be a evil, just so I'm not a good boy!]

*Pffft*

Mom started laughing loudly as she held her sides.

"Hehehe! You're pretty funny, huh?"

Mom rubbed Akumu's head without fear at all. Her face slowly morphed as she grew slightly shocked.

"Your fur, is really soft."

[Thanks? Everyone says that.]

"Wait! How do you see anyway?!"

[Ugh! She's just like Kushina! I should just head back.]

"No wait! I'm sorry! Just let me pet your fur!"

[No! I'll be stuck here forever if you do that!]

"....You two seem to get along well."

********

The twins came back with Dad as Mom and Akumu were arguing about me for some reason.

This is pretty embarrassing.

"Hii should learn more Water Style Jutsu!"

[No way! Hii will probably be much better at Lightning Style than Water! No offense, but even Grandpa said Hii has talent.]

"Ugh! Water Style has so many uses! He has the head to use it well in the right circumstance too!"

[I agree, but his sword skill is improving fast as well. Lightning Style techniques would be much more useful to his arsenal now in speed and piercing ability.]

Mom seems to be seriously considering his words.When did they become friendly like this?!

"Mom."

"Mom! You're back!!"

Yozora and Moya rush into the room and hug Mom. She hugs them back and rubs their heads with a big smile on her face.

"Dog?"

[Close, but not quite.]

Oh? Yozora's eyes are sparkling when Akumu talked. 

"Haaa? A talking dog?!"

[I'm not a dog!]

Even Moya doesn't seem too scared of him. She even pets him!

"Ooooh! Yozo! You gotta pet him!"

Yozora began to pet him as well, both rubbing his fur happily.

"We'll continue this discussion later."

 [Fine. I think these two should start specializing in different weapons too. They don't get swords like Hii does.]

Mom perked her ears at that, but decided to ignore it for now as she rushed to Dad in a sprint!

"I'm back, Dear~!"

"W-welcome home!"

.....Good luck,Dad.

"Oh! Looks like everyone is here!"

Grandma and Grandpa came inside next. The whole family's back now.

Grandma looks at me and gets confused.

"Hii dear, why are you on the floor?"

"Ugh...Punishment?"

"For what, dear?"

"Not telling Mom about Akumu."

Grandma looks right at Mom, who's hiding behind Dad right now.

"On the floor."

"But Mom! I just-"

"On. The. Floor."

Mom's head hung low as she also sat next to me.

.....This is gonna be a family thing,huh?

******

After Grandma berated Mom on her behavior, the family all moved into the living room. Akumu has become a new pillow for the twins as both of them fell asleep on his side. 

I guess he's used to it now since I used to do it all the time.

"Haaa, you could've waited until we came back to talk to him, Kaya."

"I was just concerned, Mom! I was scared of what would happen to him."

"Haaa. I'm not going to argue anymore with you."

Grandma holds her forehead back with one hand.

Mom has me sitting on her lap again. I can't get out of this one. Her hold is tight this.

Grandpa just smiles at the two arguing again and turns to Akumu.

"Thank you for protecting my family, Akumu."

[No problem. They're my family too.]

Grandpa smiles and says nothing more.

Grandma gets excited as she looks at all of us.

"I have good news for all of us today. We can finally be a clan, Kaya."

"No way! Didn't they reject us before?!"

Mom looks really excited. What's the big deal about being a clan?

"Yes, we finally can all have a last name. Di has already thought of a name though."

Grandpa nodded his head and looked at us with a serious face. 

"Kurokumo. That'll be our last name."

"....Is it related to our other relatives, Dad?"

Grandpa had a sullen face when Mom said that. The atmosphere is getting rather tense.

"Are you ok,Grandpa?"

"Umu. I'm fine. Yes, it is related to the old clan."

Grandpa eyes burn with determination as he clenches his fist.

" Grandma and I could be considered the dark outcasts of the clans we were originally from, but now we'll make a clan of our own. We'll make it however we wish."

Grandma nodded as she also grew excited.

"Hehehe! Now we can finally use those old connections we made!"

Grandpa nodded his head with a smile.

"Now we can discard the memories of the old village and truly embrace the Leaf. It'll be a new start for all of us. The children will also be able to get into the higher level class in the academy as well now."

Mom patted my head softly as she seems to think of the past.

" I was put in the civillian class back then too. Now you can just get to the higher end class with the other clan kids."

Oh? That means I can go to school with Sasuke and Naruto? Maka and Hinata should be there too.

"Now the only thing we need is a symbol to wear. I guess you have an idea about that?"

Grandpa just smiles and shows a pretty simple drawing. It's just a black cloud, but it looks pretty good.

"We'll keep it simple. We don't need an elaborate symbol anyway."

"True. We don't need elegance. This is good enough."

The two laugh at each other as Mom nods her head as well. Dad seems to like the symbol too.

"It's simple enough to put on any custom weapons we make. It's perfect!"

Grandma smiles while Grandpa nods with a sense of pride.

"I'm glad my son-in-law can appreciate our symbol. We'll have to get some clothes made for everyone to show the symbol off."

"I can handle such a simple task. I have many friends who make clothes. I can get a good price for it."

Grandma pats her chest with a smug grin. Grandma has lots of friends despite her coarse language. I wonder will Moya be like her?

"Now, about Akumu..."

I tighten up as Grandma gets to the topic.

"You just keep doing what you're doing. Just make sure to protect Hii."

[Got it!]

........ That's it?!

"That's it?!"

Even Mom can't believe it!

"What can we do? It's not like we can punish him or something. He can eat seals and completely disappear at night. We can't do much to him. He's done nothing wrong anyway."

Grandpa nods his head. 

These guys are way too lax! I guess that's fine, but still!

"Besides, he may have possibly helped you out before during the Kurama attack. You already owe him alot for saving Minato-chan and Kushina-chan. Could you handle more debt?"

"You saved Minato and Kushina?!"

[Ah? I never told you that, huh?]

Mom immediately bows her head to Akumu after she heard the news.

"Thank you for saving those two! It means a lot to me!"

[It's fine! You mean a lot to us as well, so it was just a minor detail.]

Jeez. I feel stupid for being worried at first now.

"On the subject of Akumu, how do you suppose we get the twins off of him?"

Dad asks a rather complicated question as we look at the two sleeping peacefully on Akumu's side.

".....Is he really that soft?"

"You wouldn't believe how soft he is!"

Akumu gets rather scared as Grandpa shoots up from his seat to pet him. Grandma joins him shortly afterwards, followed by Dad and Mom. 

I just watch as Akumu looks to me for help, but I can't fight family off. Their faces look like it's pure bliss to pet him too.

I guess this can be an funny story for how our family started as a clan. 

I can see it now.

We're the Kurokumo clan, and we pet Bijus.

Huh, that has a nice ring to it.