Chapter Text
There was warmth, and sadness. They could see light sometimes, but otherwise it was dark. There was constant noise at the same time. A steady beat. It was as if they had their ear pressed against someone's stomach, but it was all around them.
They’d imagined this must have been what a sensory deprivation tank must have felt like. One of their friends liked to frequent them, and said you could have them play specific music.
Another time, a teacher had told them about "The World's Quietest Room." She had said that people couldn't stand being inside of it for too long, because they'd start hearing their organs too clearly. Maybe that was what it was like.
There was an odd sense of loss as they waited for something to change. Was this death? Were they even a person anymore? Nothing more than a spirit floating in odd warmth. Had there been a mistake? Were they just meant to exist for all eternity?
They couldn’t help but think of their mother and little siblings. Their sisters would cry, but young as they were, they’d be okay.
Their mother...she was strong, but the loss would hurt her in ways they weren’t sure of. To lose a child...it was something unimaginable.
Their little brother? He would be the oldest now. What would he do with that?
They wished they’d had more time. They wished they’d been kinder. They wished they’d said how much they loved them all more.
Their lungs breathed air for the first time in so long. The world was bright and hurt their eyes. There was a sudden overload of their senses, they could only try to curl in on themselves to stop it. Only, they were lifted into the cold air, people were talking hurriedly.
They felt pain, and they screamed. Pain was something that they hadn’t felt in so long. It was almost too hard to process.
Someone held them, but their hands felt like sandpaper on their skin. They continued to scream. They were handed to someone smaller, the small one was shouting. They tried to scream for help, but their throat felt like it’d never been used before.
Finally, they handed them to someone warm and familiar. They held them close and spoke softly. They sounded exhausted. They just kept whispering, “Zhong-chan,” at them.
Why were they calling me that? That isn’t my name.
How dare they. How dare they.
It took awhile for their new baby brain to have the ability to understand exactly what was going on. They were a newborn named “Zhong”, and those people were their new “family.”
They looked hardly anything like them. Their skin was too pale. Their hair the wrong shade of brown. Their faces lacked the features of their people. While that wouldn’t have been a problem usually, one glance at their chubby baby hands caused tremors to go up their spine.
Their skin was just as pale as they were, and their beauty marks were missing. There were a few birthmarks on the new hands that were the correct shade, but their arms and legs were the pale skin tone of their new “family.”
They could hardly move in their weak newborn body, so finding a mirror for themself was out. All they could do was sit where their new family placed them and accept that they were trapped. But, given the opportunity, would they look into a mirror?
The new “family” seemed simple enough. Though, realizing their apparent “Father” was an anime nerd was a bit of a shock. He’d just walk around wearing his Naruto Ninja cosplay like it was normal. He’d even leave the house wearing it.
Zhong could only understand a few bits and pieces from the conversation, but “Mother” treated his cosplay like he was going off to war or something. He wouldn’t even say anything to her. He’d just pat Zhong’s brother on the head and leave.
Then, there was the brother. You’d think “Father” would take his kid on his Naruto LARPing adventures. Let the kid be a genin or something.
If he could make a ninja uniform that realistic looking, he could make a tiny one for the brother and take him with.
But no, the brother was left at home with “Mother,” and would play with his toys until deciding to stare at Zhong.
Boring.
Zhong would be left to stare at the wall until they soiled themself and would have to deal with the indignity of getting their diaper changed.
Disgusting and Boring.
Only, this time, the brother didn’t just stare at Zhong. He actually crawled over to Zhong and started talking. He kept talking like Zhong could understand, pointing at things and telling them about them.
It was annoying at first. But, this was far better than having to stare at the wall while “Mother” cleaned the house.
He was so much bigger than Zhong, but so much smaller than “Mother” and “Father.” He had dark brown hair and a round jaw like “Mother.” His black eyes resembled their father's.
From his size, he must have been around six. In Zhong’s past life, their little sisters had been around his size at that age, but they were a bit tall, as it goes with the women in their family.
While Zhong contemplated their brother’s age, the brother said something and laughed at it, and it touched Zhong’s heart a bit. He was just a kid, he wanted to interact with his baby sibling.
Zhong decided to give the Brother a gift, and they laughed along with him.
The brother’s eyes widened and he ran off without a word.
Well...so much for that , Zhong thought.
They could hear him yelling something from another room. A few minutes later, he came back with “Mother” in tow.
She looked tired, and Zhong couldn’t help but wonder why. If anything, they were a model baby. They never cried, they...never did much of anything. Oh. She probably thought there was something wrong with her “baby.”
In truth, there was, but they didn’t need her to know that and start worrying.
Their brother dragged her over to them and kept pointing and shouting. “Mother” finally got him to calm down after a few moments. She seemed like a good mother, not yelling or getting angry despite how tired she looked.
Their brother gingerly sat down next to Zhong. He looked worried that Zhong wasn’t going to respond correctly.
The brother said the same thing he’d said before, only this time, without laughing and Zhong could only stare at him. Their brother seemed to wilt at that, and “Mother” did too.
Their brother tried again, this time adding a weird face at the end of it.
Zhong tried to snort, but it came out sounding like a baby’s giggle. Zhong stopped in embarrassment, only for “Mother” to rush over and pick them up.
She was looking at them like they’d hung the stars because their brother had asked.
“Zhong-chan… Takara-chan, thank you.”
So their brother’s name was Takara.
Takara became their go to babysitter after that.
He’d been there for when Zhong “first” started crawling. They were an older sibling of four, and had helped raise three. They knew around when babies were supposed to start crawling.
If Zhong was a bit of an early bloomer because of impatience, well, who would call them on that.
After Zhong had been deemed “mobile enough,” they were able to leave the house in a baby wrap. Usually it was in a tight swaddled bundle so they couldn’t see anything but “Mother” and the people she showed them to.
Today was the day Zhong was wrapped like a sentient backpack and would go to the park with Takara.
“Mother” was walking along with them. She wasn’t going to send her 8 month old off alone with her six year old. That would be insane.
It didn’t connect in their brain that there was a Hokage Mountain staring them in the face until all three of them were at the park. They’d wailed until they were taken home.
The Hokage Mountain event had been surprising. Zhong had been left too tired to interact with anyone afterwards. Takara had cried, and “Mother” seemed to wilt again.
“Mother” seemed to wilt a lot.
The second time they went out, Zhong was much more prepared for what they were going to see.
They made sure to take in everything they could. There were ninja running and jumping from roof to roof.
There was the hustle and bustle of civilians shopping at stands and haggling with shop owners.
Zhong couldn’t help but think, “So, I’m going to live my life in this dangerous place?”