Uncategorized 5 Minutes

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  • summary: follow up to the Hokage Shikaku verse about what becomes of that cat Shikako got her hands on.
  • word count: 1222
  • originally posted on the forums and presented here with no edits.
  • OC notes at the bottom

Shikako’s never met the upstairs neighbor whose cat she held through the Kyuubi attack. Of course she hasn’t; she’s barely met anyone, and her dad is too busy to make friends with the neighbors. It doesn’t seem right to leave the cat alone in his owner’s apartment, since they’ve both been together in their terror for more than a day and the cat’s owner wasn’t in the nearest civilian shelter where Amano and Uzume brought her, which means they might have been anywhere in the village. Anything could have happened to them.

Her dad helps her leave a note on the neighbor’s door after they ask around on that floor. No one knows where Sato Sana-baa-san is, or who to contact to inquire about her (“I know she had a family,” one person they talk to says. “But I don’t know where, and there are so many unrelated Sato families in the village…”)

Shikako writes the note. She holds the cat in her lap and against her chest with one arm and uses the other to carefully write out, “Baa-san, we have your cat! He’s doing okay and misses you!” in green crayon along with their apartment number. Her father sticks it to the door of the apartment with a piece of double sided tape, the kind the building super hates because it sticks so well it sometimes takes a whole paint chip off when you pry it free — but they hadn’t wanted the note to fall off and get lost.

“I hope Baa-san from upstairs is okay,” she’d told her dad later, and he had nodded, and… they waited.

The cat is male, with an entirely white body, with brown and black pigmentation on his head and tail only. The tail is a weird, stubby thing that makes Shikako think at first that the cat had maybe been in one hell of a fight, but her dad says the cat was born like that. A bobtail.

Shikako doesn’t name the cat; he already has a name, and Shikako just needs to wait and find out what it is.

The day before her dad is officially confirmed as Hokage, there’s a knock on the door. The young man at the door is wearing chūnin blues, dirty from either clean up duty or a mission.

“Hi,” Shikako says. She’s not home alone, of course, but her company isn’t human: Tsume-ba’s partner Kuromaru is with her, walking on only three legs at the moment but more than enough to deter any trouble. The cat is napping, so Shikako has been coloring on the floor, leaning against Kuromaru’s warm side.

“Ah, my name is Sato Touma,” says the young man. He can’t be more than 18. He’s clutching her note in one hand. He looks exhausted. “This note says you have my grandmother’s cat…?”

“Oh,” Shikako says, shoulders slumping. “I’m Kinokawa Shikako. Um, this is Kuromaru.” She waves at the dog. “Please come in. I’ll go get the cat.” She steps back from the door, letting him in, unaware that she’s being curiously polite and solemn for a little girl, too caught up in how she’s really, really going to miss the cat, who has been sleeping on her bed and in her lap for days now.

Touma comes in, but he shakes his head. “No, Shikako-chan, that won’t be necessary, I think. Ah… my grandmother was at the market during the attack.”

Shikako looks up at him, eyes wide. “My daddy saved the market, though,” she says. “He — he held it back. The market is okay. Everyone lived.”

Adults crouching down to talk to her is the kind of thing that should drive Shikako crazy, but it doesn’t. It’s just nice to not have to look so far up. Touma crouches down, and looks at her seriously, and Shikako thinks he’s been crying.

“He saved a lot of people,” Touma agrees. “But Sana-baa was very old and weak, and there’s really nothing that could have been done for her.”

Chakra poisoning. A lot of the babies who were really young or weak hadn’t made it. Inoichi-jii had been very worried about Ino-chan. Kanatoko-ba had been glad Shikasai was mostly out of infancy, about a year old now. Tsume’s son Kiba is being watched over very carefully by her clan, and Hana hadn’t wanted to leave his side, not even to visit Shikako.

“I’m sorry,” Shikako says, and it comes out strangled with emotion that’s risen up out of nowhere for an old woman she never met. She’s not a child, not really… but she is. She’s living as one. Her body is a child’s. Touma is a child, too, really, hardly old enough for anything more than peach fuzz. Younger than she’d been when she died Before.

Touma looks down, briefly, but holds on to his emotions. “It’s okay, Shikako-chan. She would have been really glad that someone was taking care of Hyō,” he says. “I, um. I didn’t think you’d be so young…” Touma trails off. Hyō must be the cat’s name. Leopard, which is an ambitious name for such a friendly, lazy cat.

“You were hoping they’d keep the cat,” Kuromaru says. To Touma’s credit, he barely startles, although he clearly wasn’t expecting the dog to talk.

“Uh, yeah. I’m allergic and my apartment building… ah, you know, Shikako-chan, that’s not really your problem. I can — I can take Hyō. I’m sure you and Kinokawa-sama have enough on your plate. I can’t ask him to take in my grandma’s cat. I’ll find Hyō a good home.”

“We’re a good home,” Shikako protests, before she can think. Her father hasn’t said one way or the other about keeping the cat, because they hadn’t considered it an option. Now that it is, though… Also, she’s never heard her father addressed as ‘Kinokawa-sama’ before. That’s probably about holding the Kyuubi back, she thinks at the time — later, she’ll realize Touma probably had heard rumors that her father would be announced Godaime Hokage the next morning.

“I know, Shikako-chan, I know,” Touma assures her. Looking kind of nervous. Her dad already had a really impressive reputation, Shikako has gathered. Taking on the Kyuubi must have made him seem downright intimidating.

“You should stay for dinner and ask him,” Shikako says, in a tone she hopes will convince him that he has to. He looks like he needs a good meal and they’re having pot roast from Akimichi Setsuko dropped off earlier by one of the younger Akimichi. And Touma shouldn’t be so nervous about her dad.

Touma says, “I couldn’t possibly…”

Shikako shakes her head. “You gotta. Hyō is sleeping! So even if you wanna take him, he’s too tired to go now.”

“Ahh…” Touma looks at Kuromaru for help.

Kuromaru looks back at him, sizing him up. “What, kid, you already got plans for dinner? Someone waiting for you?”

Touma’s shoulders slump. “No,” he says. “I don’t.”

His voice cracks when he admits it. Shikako sends a scandalized look at Kuromaru — he didn’t have to be so rough! — and then goes in for a tight hug, even though they’re strangers and he’s dusty. She’s going to keep Hyō and she’s going to make Touma visit him. Touma hugs her back, but his arms are gentle, like she might break.

OC notes: Touma originates here! Kanatoko is from Voldecourt’s Shadows Inked In Black which everyone should read please.

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