A 15 month old Uchiha walk to the arms of his mother. He was so close to doing so, only 10 centimetres to the arms of his mother, before he fell down and hit facefirst to the tatami mat.
The fall didn't stop him and he got up with determination to continue to walk to his mother's arms. There was a red sizzling patch on his forehead, but he didn't mind the pain and continued his mission.
It was an amusing sight for his mother and she couldn't help but take a picture of him, earning a pouting glare as the infant furrowed his eyebrows at the sight of the camera.
"Come on, Riku. Smile!" her mother cheered as she click on the camera.
The infant abruptly wailed.
'No- who?' he thought as all the colors drained from his face.
He saw a group of people sitting in a regular arrangement as the camera clicked and flashed several times. They all wore a stoic expression, each also wearing a green uniform, a green hat, some had medal pins on their chest and they were all carrying a long device with a small hollow tube in the centre. One particular person he noticed was a boy with long black hair and blood red scarlet eyes who had a golden sun symbol on his black soldier cap.
"Shh. . Shhh" his mother rocked and he no longer saw the people, quicky forgetting the boy he saw.
'It's warm,' the boy thought and his wails calmed down.
The bewitching lullaby escaped the mother and the toddler finds himself succumbing to sleep as his eyelids growing heavier every second.
Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.
Seeing that the toddler had fallen asleep, his mother placed him on the futon in the living room before she answered the door.
* * *
"Excuse me, are you Uchiha Ren's wife?" A tanned man with hair tied in a bun, sharp chin and an eyepatch covering his left eye who stood in front of the gate said.
He wore the standard uniform for the Uchiha police force and his Konohagakure headband was tied on his right bicep.
"I'm not going to dilly-dally, I'm sorry to inform you but your husband died on a mission." he said monotonously.
"T-that. . . How- ?" the shock had temporarily cause the mother to choke on her words. Tears pooled her eyes and she quickly wiped it off before they leaked out.
Recomposing herself, she said "Thank you for the news." and bowed.
Without another word, the Uchiha police left in a whirlwind.
"Ma. . .ma?" the toddler who had woken up from his nap held onto the doorframe as he called out to his now sobbing mother.
Realising she was acting this way, she quickly strutted to her toddler and picked him up.
"It's ok, Riku. I'm fine. . ." she trailed off, her eyes lost the twinkle she usually had and her smile was strained as she patted the toddler's back.
"Ma. . .ma. . ." he babbled on, trying to comfort her. He didn't know what made her sad and he wasn't able to properly talk (in an adult manner) yet so this was all he could do in an attempt to alleviate the pain of his birthmother of this world.
* * *
The death of her husband had taken a toll on Riku's mother. Instead of the usual warmth she radiated, she radiated a sense of sadness. She no longer had the same bright smile and twinkling eyes as she went about her day.
Often times, Riku would notice that she would be in a daze, dully looking at nowhere in particular. Like the time she forgot she had been boiling water and had bare handedly touch the boiling water.
Or another time when she forgot to feed him until several hour had pass lunchtime.
It concerned the little Uchiha and greatly unnerved him. For both his health and his mother's safety.
He had recently found out about the reason behind her peculiar actions after she had brought him out to visit a tombstone— his father's tombstone. The kanji carved on the stone was something he didn't understand until his mother had broke down.
"Riku, please don't leave me like your father did." she croaked out, crouching as she caress the toddler in her arms.
The young Uchiha understood and replied with a firm nod, he understood the reason now.
Looking at the name carved on the stone, he can't help but feel that the loss of his father felt normal. He knows that he should be sad, but he feels numb. Like death was something he found natural and it was something he had expected to happen.
He felt guilty, no perhaps that wasn't the right description. He doesn't know what he's feeling, but he knows its not guilt, the feeling was more painful- more suffocating and it was certainly not an unfamiliar emotion. His mother's bawling her eyes out, while here he didn't feel an ounce of sadness from the death of his father. Was he heartless? Maybe.
Or it was just that he was too young to understand the concept of death. As if.
Needless to say, the fact that he didn't feel sad about the departure of his dather slightly unnerved him with guilt. His gaze lingered on the name— Ren Uchiha— before he took the chrysanthemum from his mother's hands and place it on the stone platform.
'It's weird. I feel like I've done this before. . . Deja vu?' he pondered, his gaze still not leaving the tombstone.
'Deja vu? What the hell is that?' he noticed what he had just thought, he doesn't remember where he's heard it, 'What's wrong with me?'
His eyes widen and his field of vision turned fuzzy as he tightened his grip on his black shirt, saliva was threatening to drip down as his mouth was unhinged. His mother's cry started to sound more distant and he abruptly had an urge to take in plentiful volume of air before his vision restored to normal. Then, he tugged the sleeve of his mother's plain black dress.
"Ho . me. . " he managed to mumble out before colapsing onto the grass, fortunately not hitting his head on the hard stone.
* * *
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A/n: Have you ever thought about dying? Lemme rephrase that, (that sounded suicidal) I mean, what comes after death?
Do you believe in reincarnation? Hell and Heaven?