Blood of the Broken, Scars of the Spiral (there are whirlpools in our veins)

Chapter Five

we are family, 

although we do not resemble, 

although i am black and you are white, 

although you are rich and i am poor

-Michael J. Burt

//

On the day of the Kyuubi festival, Naruto's birthday, he and Aiya spent the day locked in their room.

This wasn't unfamiliar, he would hide in the closet a lot before Aiya started taking care of him in the days immediately prior to and after the festival because those were the days that the children and orphanage staff were the cruelest.

One time a little girl had tried to burn him, he learned quickly to stay out of sight after that.

At least now he wasn't stuck in that too small closet and had someone to spend time with.

On his birthday, because no matter how much he wished it wasn't it was still his birthday, Aiya gave him a pretty silk shirt that she had bought for him with her allowance.
It was probably the nicest thing he owned considering most of his clothing were worn and ripping apart at the seams, literally.

Naruto found himself quite delighted with his shirt which was made with blue and silver and white smooth material.

And then, he got an idea.

He had seen the matron sew clothing for the children multiple times before, it seemed like a particularly useful skill. He could mend his clothes, and use it to make something for Aiya-chan.

So when Aiya was occupied with something a couple of days later he stole a spool of thread, some old fabric, and a rusty, but still serviceable sewing needle.

Thievery was nothing new to him. When the 'Aunties' withheld him food it wasn't unusual for him to steal some from the gardens, where he spent a considerable amount of time, or, if he was lucky, the kitchen.

No one would notice a missing spool of—admittedly ugly—swamp green thread and old grey cloth, he would be perfectly fine.

He sits in his room and begins to practice.

Threading the needle took longer than Naruto would have liked; he had seen the matron do the same thing in the blink of an eye, struggling with something that seemed so simple was really frustrating!

Nevertheless, he persisted and after a few tries, he managed to thread the needle.

"Yatta!"

He can't help the stream of pleased laughter that escaped, nor did he want to.

He did it! He was so awesome, he figured it out all by himself without any help from no one!

Reinvigorated by his success, he started with stitch that seemed simple enough,  hemming the fabric in a pattern that suggested a sunflower, in honour of Aiya.

The first few were shaky and uneven, but the result had been a flower. A clumsy one, but still a sunflower. The second one looked better, and the third one was even better than the last.

He didn't have a hoop like the matron did but actually kind of liked his flimsy flowers.

By his tenth sunflower, he concluded that he was just about as satisfied with his work as he was going to get.

Also, there was no more space on the cloth.

Later that evening, Naruto showed Aiya the fabric with the sunflower embroidery —he thinks that's what it's called— and she went really quiet for a moment, looking at the fabric for a long time before asking if she could borrow it for a night. Naruto was confused but agreed.

The next morning Naruto was approached by the matron in the playroom. She was frowning down at him and was holding the fabric Naruto had given Aiya the previous night in her hand.

He gulped, did he do something wrong, the matron never talked to him directly.

"Aiya said you did this," the matron said, waving the fabric about. Naruto nodded, trembling a bit under her gaze.

The matron looked thoughtfully down at him before speaking "You're good. Very good. That sort of talent shouldn't go to waste," she paused, "We send a lot of clothing off to get mended, if you mend it for us you'll get a small allowance."

Naruto's eyes widened in surprise as he nodded hurriedly. The matron smiled and her hard face softened ever so slightly. "Come along, boy," she prompted, "the sheets aren't going to mend themselves."

Naruto eagerly followed after her.

It was hard work, but even as it made his hands ache and his fingers bleed until they formed callouses, Naruto couldn't help but feel proud of himself, he even had an allowance now!

His fingers still lagged behind a bit, but as the months passed by Naruto got better, advancing from mending sheets and blankets to fixing buttons and clothes.

Alongside learning sewing, Aiya was teaching him how to read, wasn't that cool!

The room that he worked in put him in even closer proximity with the other children meaning that he could hear more than he typically did. Which was saying something because he was usually aware of most things but now, he was hyperaware of everything.

Incidentally, that was how he found out about the forest full of oversized, man-eating monsters that was way too close to the village for him to be comfortable.

All in all, he was doing well. Maybe he wouldn't destroy everything in the orphanage, maybe he could get the matron to come with him too.

He snuggled himself into Aiya's warm smell, a familiar rumbling of pack/together/love in his gut as she stroked her hand through his hair. And if when she ruffled his golden locks, he thought he had seen a few strands of red, well, it was probably a trick of his imagination, Aiya-chan always said he had a big one.

A/N

I know this chapter isn't very well written, this whole book isn't very well written tbh. But I wanted to try writing something fluffy and soft and somewhat domestic before y'all have to deal with the chapter I have planned (chap.7) after the next one (chap.6), which has a lot more direct significance.

I just really like the idea of Naruto being a really crafty person. Later on, he's just gonna keep making small trinkets except these trinkets have SeALiNg POWER cause he's very chaotic with his experiments like that.

So anyway next chapter is going to be short and fluffy.

And I can not stress this enough, please comment. How am I supposed to improve if no one will tell me whats wrong, like I said 'constructive criticism.' It would also be nice if y'all could leave a few words of encouragement. 

Of course you don't have to do any of this if you don't want to or aren't comfortable, think of this as a request, not a demand.

Have a good day/night, remember to treat yourself, and have a nice life.

So long, guys and gals.

Disclaimer

I do NOT own the Naruto series, it belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. I own only my original characters and the plot.