Chapter 27.2- One Thousand Hands

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In the end, therapy was one of the few things I found myself looking forward to on a daily basis.

“So what do things look like now., Shorirama?” She asked as I floated in the water and stared up at the sky above us. She was one of the few whales whiling to come to the surface. It was probably because she was one of the smaller of her kind. Boss said she was still older than me by a fair margin, but had slipped that the two of us were somewhat close in age. I guess that was why he felt that she would be the best placed to relate to me and my problems.

“Well, Tsunade insists that she doesn’t blame me for everything but we both know that Granduncle would not have used the Reaper Death Seal if he felt I was still alive” I said and then prepared to continue before she made a sound from deep within that told me to stop. It was what we used to show that she had a question. I had the choice of continuing or stopping to let her ask her question. That bit of agency was everything to me. And I gestured for her to ask.

“What makes you so certain? From what you know, there was no other way to disable the eight-tails.” She asked. It was a fair question.

“Did he really need to disable the Eight-tails, though? He could have just taken the Konoha shinoboi and what remained of the Uzu forces in batches with the flying Raijin while Hiruzen, Kagami, and Danzo delayed the beast. He could have even brought Mito over. She was able to seal the Nine Tails after all. Even at her age, I’d give her good odds of managing it. I think he just lost hope and gave up a bit so that’s why he did what he did.”

“That’s a very arrogant way of seeing things”

“Well, Tsunade agrees” I replied instantly, slightly aggravated by the accusation.

“And you know this how? She told you.”

“Never explicitly. But she’s made it more than clear with her actions”

“How?”

“I don’t know, okay. Just the vibe of things. She struggles to meet my eyes. Doesn’t bring Nawaki around as much. Doesn’t spend as much time training with me or inviting me to training sessions as she used to” I replied.

“Have you ever considered that there could be other reasons for that?”

“What possible other reasons could there be?”

“Assuming that the changes in behavior are actually signs of a larger thing, then what if she feels guilty?”

“What?”

“You think she blames you and you feel guilty about it, but what if she herself feels guilty”

“What in the hell could she possibly feel guilty about?” I struggled to see where Kumiko was going with this.

“You said that when your Uncle thought you were dead, he named her the heir to the clan and that she now rules as clan head, right?”

“Yes. But that doesn’t matter”

“Doesn’t it? She might feel like she’s stolen your birthright. I and Genji don’t get along much with how boring the Baka is, but I would feel terrible if Father named me as Boss over him especially if its over something that wasn’t even his fault.”

“So you think that’s it? She feels guilty?” I asked.

“I think it’s a possibility, but you won’t know till you have a conversation with her. “

“I told you she’s basically avoiding me.”

“Uh-huh. And you can’t force the situation?”

“Well, I could.”

“Good, then go do so.” She said finally.

“Alright then” I replied, preparing to be sent back. I closed my eyes, bracing for the sudden change in environment but then nothing happened.

“What?”

“Have you forgotten that you were supposed to join Jinpei and the others for training today?” She asked with what sounded like a giggle and I flushed at the realization before I turned away from her and began to swim downwards.

“Same time tomorrow, Shorirama” She called after me and I nodded at the dismissal.