Work Text:
We have a lot of control over our lives, but there are certain things you can't change. We can control what we do and how we act, but we can't control how we're born, where we're born, who we are born from, or the fact that we all die at some point. What you look like, where you're born, and who you're related to greatly affects your life, since they're things you can't change unless you sacrifice something in return.
Σ੧(❛□❛✿)
Being a huge nerd had its advantages and disadvantages. Most of the advantages come from the fact that when I was interested in something, I got obsessive about it for about a year. That made it easy for me to be successful in school and studying, but hard to make friends since I closed myself off and focused on one thing. Not having a lot of friends meant I was lonely and mildly depressed at a young age, which stuck with me as I got older. Luckily, I had two close friends no matter what happened. We were all pretty similar in our interests and thought processes, but like humans, we had the occasional scuffle. Arguments were settled through angry letters passed to each other through the neutral friend. Somehow there was never a fight between all three of us, but I'd like to think that was only because we argued about stupid things and one of us actually thought things through. We were all each other really had, and issues were resolved within the day or so.
Anime was introduced to me at a young age. My friends had learned about it from my persistent nagging to watch at least one series. I first watched Naruto when my father told me about a cool show. Although I was only 6 years old, I grew to love the action, humor, and magic of that world. The fighting was amazing! I wanted to be able to do the things they did and kick attackers through trees. I wanted to be like Rock Lee, the taijutsu master with crazy strength, because that's the closest I could get to be like them. My father put me into a local kung fu school about a year after I had started watching Naruto. I trained for ten years, but I still wasn't good enough to get my black belt, let alone do 100 push-ups. I was so close! One level away and I'd be satisfied with myself, happy that I had finally stuck with something for so long I could see progress! But things don't always go the way you believe.
Σ੧(❛□❛✿)
During the summer, there was a free anime convention that had a cosplay contest, and of course, I wanted to enter as a Naruto character. It was only a day long and in a nearby city, so I went with my two friends. They didn't watch Naruto, but I forced them to cosplay as the gender-bent version of Team 7 from the pre-Shippuden series with me. I was Sakura, because I did not want to wear a long wig. My friend, Dan, the only boy, was Naruko. Exactly the same outfit as canon!Naruto but with long blond pigtails and soft bangs. My other friend, Sarah, was Sasuko. Instead of canon!Sasuke’s normal outfit, Sasuko’s was a short sleeved blue dress with a high collar and slits down both hips. White spandex shorts were under the dress, and the arm warmers and leg wraps were the same as canon. The hair was also the same except it was longer on the bottom. I liked to tease Sarah by calling it Sasuke’s duck butt with extensions.
For the contest, we did a short skit that included all of us complaining about how late Kakashi-sensei was, me doing “taijutsu” to show off to Sasuko, Naruko fangirling, and me trying to get Sasuko’s attention. Unfortunately, we didn't win, but we all had a lot of fun. After the contest was over, Dan wanted to look at the merch that people were selling so we walked around the artist booths. I was broke from making my cosplay but somehow Dan always had money. And he even saved enough to use Naruto’s weird fat frog purse. In the end, he had picked up a lot of merch, and I was forced to carry it since I had the habit of using a backpack instead of a purse and was the only one with a bag. We had entered the parking structure where our car was, Dan and Sarah slightly leading the way with smiles seemingly stuck to our faces.
“Yo I got so much stuff!!! I can't wait to hang it up and fanboy for hours!! Gonna stalk all these artists on tumblr!!!” Dan excitedly babbled on as he looked at all the business cards he got.
I could almost see the anime sweatdrop forming on Sarah’s head.
“Gingy, calm down before you walk into a pole again,” Sarah deadpanned. I smiled at the memory, visualizing Dan spotting a dog across the road and wanting to pet it so bad he got distracted enough to actually smash face first into a lamp post.
“Why do you keep calling me Gingy? Shrek is not a good influence on you two…” Dan muttered as I slapped a hand down on his shoulder.
“Because you're a ginger, duh,” I teased while tugging lightly on the bottom of his wig, “Gingers and cookies don't have souls.”
“You guys are so mean…” Dan whined.
“At least your nickname didn't start from a typo!” Sarah retorted, shaking her head and grimacing, “Sarsag…”
“I'm glad mine is something you guys worked hard on-” I started to say.
“THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID!!!!” Then Dan dabbed.
I felt my own sweatdrop start to form.
“Gingy, who is this girl you keep mentioning? A secret lover?” Sarah wiggled her eyebrows and repeatedly nudged him with her elbow.
“You guys know I'm not-” Dan began, but was cut off by a new voice.
“Put your hands up!” Someone screamed behind us.
My brain was completely blank due to a huge rush of adrenaline as I slowly raised my hands above my head and turned around. I took a deep breath and tried to slow my heart rate down so I could rationalize the situation.
‘... No way. A Hidan cosplayer is freaking mugging me. Jashin why.’ I speculated hysterically as I looked at the switchblade in his hand. I had learned how to defend myself against this, but I knew that would only help if he engaged me and not anyone else. ‘At least he doesn't have a gun...’ I darkly imagined how quickly this would have been over before grounding myself again.
“Give me your fucking money!” The mugger screamed, shaking his blade at us.
I could hear Sarah’s whimper as he screamed and I backed up a step to be closer to my friends. He didn't have Hidan’s scythe, and there was no “Kakuzu” to back him up.
“Dan give him our money,” I shakily breathed out and I heard the rustle of clothes behind me as he pulled the now skinny green frog out of his pocket.
“HURRY UP!!” The mugger screamed again, sounding more panicky and nervous this time.
Dan tossed the frog in front of me and I clenched my fists before kicking it towards the mugger and making a break for it. Darting between my friends, I grabbed their wrists, tugging them with me. We dashed towards the exit and out to the street, still running until we pressed together in a packed crowd and hid ourselves. There was a group singing a song from Love Live! but I was still looking for those red clouds and silver wig. My grip on Sarah and Dan’s wrists were so tight I could feel their shaking in time with mine. Dan’s hand grabbed my wrist back and I shook Sarah’s to make her do the same thing. She was trembling considerably more so than Dan, and I shook Dan's wrist to make him comfort her. We'd spent enough time around each other to know what we wanted by the simplest of actions.
“There's a Deidara cosplayer but I don't know if they're related or not,” I nodded in the direction I saw them. “I hope they don't-”
They ripped open their cloak and an actual huge bomb was strapped to their chest.
I bent down and pulled my friends down in a tight clump, futilely hoping that the people around us would protect us in case they actually blew themselves up. I didn't know if anyone had noticed them, and I wasn't going to ask anyone now.
“If I die I want you to know I love you both,” I said to both Sarah and Dan, somehow squeezing their wrists tighter. They squeezed back and Sarah let out a shuddering sob.
“At least we died together,” Dan almost whispered as his eyes clenched shut. I could see him vividly imagining one of us getting stabbed by the mugger.
I let my tears fall as I dared to look back through the legs around us. The Deidara was smirking as they looked around with what must have been the trigger in their hand.
‘They're waiting for the song to finish,’ I thought morbidly. As soon as I thought that the music stopped and the cheering started. The Deidara looked more and more insane and their smirk grew into a crazed visage.
It felt like hours but it must have been only seconds. I accepted my death. I bent towards my friends, almost sagging into the ground. “I'm sorry I made you come. Please forgive me.”
The clapping started to die off. Sarah and Dan snapped their heads towards me, looking hopeless and angry and terrified.
“It's not-”
“KATSU!!!”
And everything was white hot, my senses were all shot, and I could see my skin burn away in slow motion as I tried to curl into myself. My hearing came back but it was just loud ringing and I could smell smoke and it was completely dark now and I couldn't feel my back oh no Dan's stuff and my lungs felt like I was being crushed by an elephant and and and-
And then nothing.