Chapter 89: A heartbreaking? Play.
Standing in front of the Haruno family stores was a wooden wagon, pulled by two horses.
A lady with a head full of red hair got out of the wagon by lifting the cloth flap at its end, along with a similar looking small girl who had full frame glasses on her face who followed after her.
"Mrs. Kagura, was the trip comfortable?" The voice of a shinobi in the standard ANBU attire wearing a bird mask popped up from above the wagon as she landed softly on its top.
A little startled but composing herself soon enough the lady turned to look toward the voice and answered in a firm but soft voice accompanied by a polite bow.
"Yes miss. Thank you for helping us out of that hellish place and letting us escape to Konoha."
The ANBU member just nodded as she handed over a sheet of paper to the older lady, "These are the instructions given for you to follow before you decide on doing anything else. Make sure to burn it after you've read through it."
The little girl became startled as soon as the ANBU remember suddenly vanished after saying those words leaving them behind all alone inside the busy street.
Curiously looking around to search for the ANBU member the little girl tried to find her but was unsuccessful in doing so.
The mother placed a hand on her daughter as she patted it to get her attention as the little girl watched the paper in her mother's hands burn away.
"Come quickly! Let's go and finish our tasks! It said there's a festival in the evening that we could visit if we had free time."
"Festival?"
"Yep, it's the winter festival for celebrating the last harvest of the year."
"Ohh.."
...
"So you've handed over the instructions then?"
"Yes Lord Hokage."
"You've all done well in this final mission of yours. Bird, Wolf, Cat, Dog. You may retire from your roles and pass on the mask for others to use until you are recalled."
The ANBU members all performed a deep bow as they placed their masks on the floor and looked back up at the Hokage.
"Thank you for your extended services, make sure to help the village by letting the will of fire burn in your hearts. You may be dismissed."
All the now Ex-ANBU immediately shushined out of the room leaving their masks turned to face upside on the floor.
Outside on a random tree branch, Shizune stopped Kakashi by holding his sleeve as he was forced to stop and turn around to face her.
"Are we going to the festival together?" Shizune looked like she was pleading rather than asking him.
Kakashi's eyes just shook a little but just as he was about to reject her, Shizune interrupted by squeezing his hand and saying, "Please?"
"...alright."
"Great! Then I'll be wearing a red yukata and waiting for you at the entrance for you to find me! Make sure to come! On time!! OK!?"
"..ok."
"Bye! See you soon!"
….
"Ano…Itachi…would you like to go to the festival with me?" casually asked a black haired girl with a simple smile hanging on her face.
"Un."
"Great! We can go eat Dango together then!"
"Un!"
Itachi looked into the eyes of the excited girl in front of him with equal excitement.
'I wonder what might've happened if the Fourth was not the Hokage. I have a feeling I would not have been together with you then Izumi..'
….
Looking down from a great height was an ethereal Entity that looked like it was chewing on some cheetos while watching an anime that had not yet been released by the Haruno Store.
*yawn* *scratch**scratch* *yawn*
'Wasn't that festival today?'
'Do I watch it?'
'I'll probably have to do it the hard way if I want to since the damn rabbit is playing my role in it.'
'Hmm….it's been a long time since I've watched anything other than the anime I got from Mito….perhaps it's time to take a break.'
'I also have to find that damn old man who goes around fooling other people that he's a Sage. How do they even believe such an ugly piece of shit came out from me! I'm a proud Virgin! Goddamn humans, they think everything is free to breed.'
'I wonder what Megumi is doing…..that brat has something interesting cooking in his head. Perhaps I should reveal myself to him? It's not like he can't contact me himself already. But why hasn't he done so already? Maybe he's just shy? Or he's probably just busy with his fiancee…those two are hornier than my baby rabbits.'
'I wonder how my two little baby rabbits who stayed back are doing though. After helping Hashirama out to break himself from the strings of fate he was strung to, my two little children took on the roles of their reincarnations ....maybe this time around they'll have a better life.'
Staring down on the festivities occurring around the lake while lying down on her side, Kaguya scratched her butt cheek as she thought with a pondering look in her face, 'Sakura….why did I choose you? And Megumi…what are you..?'
'Oh! The show's starting!'
Kaguya focused her view on the ripples forming all over the surface of the water sprouting up from the initially small bubbling on the surface of the lake in its center, but soon spreading out, causing the water to bubble as if it were boiling.
"Oh! It started! Rura! Can you see Shizune anywhere? She said she was waiting for someone at the entrance right?"
"No…I think she's still outside. Maybe she went back home since she's tired from her mission that she just completed?"
"....I hope so." Megumi said in a rather disappointed voice.
Both Mebuki and Megumi eyed each other as they were both worried that something sad had happened, but finding that neither of them had a solution for now, they decided to set the problem aside for now.
A well built platform erupted from the lake seemingly held and protected by dozens of hands.
As the hands withdrew into the water and revealed the stage on the inside, Megumi's eyes brightened when he saw the scene inside it.
Using a waterfall and a few trees as camouflage for its support along with the help of the perspective, the stage cleverly built the illusion of a moon hanging in the sky right over the horizon.
Everyone watched as a beautiful lady appeared inside the moon and looked down upon the mountain underneath as she watched the procession of an Emperor's crowning ceremony pass by.
"Hmm…another human king?" the lady in the moon thought out loud.
"Perhaps I should go and see how the human world has changed during my absence….."
The soft voice that the lady spoke in was heard clearly by all those present around the lake, as if something was amplifying it.
A large curtain of water rose up as through the blurry veil of water people spotted the scenery behind it change and as soon as it dropped the front of a wodden traditional house was revealed.
An old couple spoke to each other as they laughed and ate breakfast when a small rabbit jumped into their house.
The rabbit hopped around until it finally found its way to the old man who fed it a little bit of his own food.
Looking content the rabbit squeaked for a bit before it dragged the man into the forest by pulling on its clothes and making him follow it under the curious gaze of his wife.
The man picked up his axe and took it along with him for just in case something attacked him while he was inside the forest.
Following the small white rabbit while hacking away at the bushes, comes and tress the man walked deeper into the forest as he finally came across a small plantation like growth of bamboo deep within the forest where he lost track of the little rabbit.
Since the man was a bamboo seller he knew the bamboo in front of him was of a high quality and just thaanked the rabbit spirit for bringing him to such a location by praying to it.
Hacking away at a bamboo he soon became stunned as he spotted gold and jewels fall out of it as did the next few he hacked away at.
Only after he moved over to the fifth bamboo did he suddenly stop and drop his axe when he spotted a little baby girl nestled and sleeping quietly inside its hollow shoot.
Picking up the girl along with the gems and gold the man hurriedly made his way back to his home too show his wife what he had found.
Happy that they now had a child, since they hadn't been able to conceive one before, the old couple adopted the child as theirs.
The little girl soon within the span of three months grew up to become a beautiful girl.
Since the girl hadn't been named yet, the couple brought her to the village priest.
"Oh! Great priest! Could you decide an auspicious name for our daughter?! We wish to name her since she does not have one yet."
"Hmm…" the priest closed his eyes as he seemingly observed something about Kaguya the rest could not see and when he opened his eyes he said, "Kaguya-hime. She shall be known hence forth as Kaguya-hime, or the Princess of Light."
As Kaguya over the next few weeks grew older to a marriable age only becoming more beautiful, her father grew concerned over her safety as being an ordinary bamboo cutter he couldn't protect her very well. Which caused him to seclude her to the house to protect and keep news about her beauty a secret so that she can be safe from the eyes of preying men.
"Oh Great priest! The bamboo cutter has recently stopped arriving at the village to trade bamboo. Would you perhaps know if something has happened to him?"
"No he is alright, he has just adopted a daughter, her name is Kaguya-hime."
But word inevitably gets out when the priest who named her mentions her to someone else in the village.
As time passes by several people come to the bamboo cutter's house to visit Kaguya and ask for her hand in marriage but she declines them all.
Which to the people only further's her value as her beauty seems unparalleled, leading rumours about it to spread far and wide reaching the capitals of the respective kings of five large kingdoms who also soon make a visit to the bamboo cutter's house to ask for her hand in marriage.
"Hmm…if I still decline them they might get angry and harm my mother and father, but if I accept them I would have to be married off. Perhaps I should just give them an impossible task." Kaguya thought out her wisdom as she handed out five tasks to the nobles from the five kingdoms.
"For you from the Land of Water, I besceech you to find me the kauri that is protected by a slug if you want to marry me."
"For you from the Land of Fire, I besceech you to find me the fur of the animal that does not burn when set on fire."
"For you from the Land of Earth, I besceech you to find me a branch from the legendary land to the east."
"For you from the Land of Wind, I besceech you to find me the jewel that is deeply prized and protected by the Dragon inside its neck."
"And finally to you from the Land of Sky, I besceech you to bring me the stone that holds the elixir of life."
The men all set off to do what they were asked off and find their required items but soon gave up one after another since the items were very hard or nearly impossible to get.
But since the allure of Kaguya's beauty was too much, some decided to cheat her and bring items that their money could buy instead to fool her.
But once they presented the items to Kaguya she pointed out the flaws in front of each one of them making her free again. Word had spread that the Kauri protected by the Slug fell short when it was found to hold no extraordinary qualities and looked like just another Kauri, while the prince who obtained the jewel from the dragon's neck died on his journey, the fire proof fur burnt when it was placed on hot coal, while the man who brought an exquisitely studded branch was embarassed when the artist who had made the branch arrived at the bamboo cutter's home to ask for money from the noble for his work, and the stone that contained the elixer of life was broken but nothing came out from the inside as it was a normal stone.
Soon after this incident the Emperor of the far off land who had initially enticed Kaguya to come down to Earth heard about Kaguya's beauty and arrived at the bamboo cutter's house.
"Oh fair lady! Your beauty, unparalleled, unatainable, and unmatched, has stolen the sound of my heart for it only beats as long as you are around. Please….I beg of you, let me carry you back to my land where I will feed you, wash you, and hold you for as long as I can."
"I apologise, oh great Emperor, ruler of the lands beyond, but I cannot come with you, since the people of your land would all frown upon my entrance into your palace for I am not a woman who lives under your rule or law."
Disappointed the emperor returned but kept in touch by regularly sending letters to Kaguya over the next three years.
One summer fullmoon night, Kaguya looked up at the moon as she cried and cried with no rhyme or no reason as to why.
Her parents tried to observe and understand but they failed and became worried about why.
But Kaguya one fine afternoon set aside time for herself to write down two letters, one for her parents who had taken care of her and another for the Emperor who had stayed in contact with her.
It was a letter of goodbye which made the parents weep and cry causing their distress to reach the Emperor faster than Kaguya's letter and send his soldiers to stop Kaguya but as the last night fell, in a dazzling show of light, several human like beings descended from the moon onto the bamboo cutter's house where Kaguya pardoned herself and walked away giving away her life.
As the emperor read Kaguya's letter which contained the Elixer of Immortality to join her he became sad and distraught as he penned down a letter which he ordered his army to carry and burn on top of the tallest mountains that were closest to the moon ending the story.
Kaguya observed with intrigue from her spot as she thought out loud, "Huh…they got a lot of things right…I mean why would you annoy a random women to marry you when she doesn't want to!? And I wonder if they actually know there's a portal to the moon in a spring under a mountain in the Land of Lightning… Haha! It was a nice play! Now time to go back to read my manga!"
Many people in the audience were distraught at the end of the play but many were even understanding of Kaguya as she seemed to miss her home dearly and with no one to stop her here, she chose to leave.
Noticing Sakura sobbing silently beside him as she watched the end of the play, Megumi wrapped his hand around her's and rubbed the back of her palm.
A water curtain slowly lifted up from around the platform and covered it up along with the stone hands that balled up around the platform as it sunk back into the lake.
Once everyone had calmed down a little, a smaller platform with stone steps leading to it from the shore appeared in the center of the lake where a person stood as he spoke, "I hope everyone has enjoyed the work our group has set up for the people of the village today! Please welcome the Actors and the Actresses on stage as everyone here in the village will be given a little bit of time to interact with them."
*clap**clap**clap**clap**clap*
Under thunderous applause, all the people who played a part in the play, walked upto the stage in the center from the shore skipping over the stone steps and came to the center.
With a simple bow to everyone which earned them another round of applause, as they settled into their positions from the most important in the center to the extras at the end.
That was when Sakura recognised, "Hey isn't that Gladdy! I thought I recognised the emperor! No wonder I did! That's my prosthetic!"
"Didn't Tsuna-nee look cute when she played Kaguya!?"
"Hehe...I guess we can tease her about it tonight during dinner!"
"True."
The Haruno family wasn't the only place that was having such conversations, each person recognised someone on stage as a few waved to them and got waves back, creating a pleasant and harmonious atmosphere.
...
Although the entire area around the lake was happy and harmonious, a lone girl in a Red Kimono stood in tears at the entrance to the lake for the festival as she looked with hollowed eyes at the horizon waiting for someone but no one ever arrived.
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