mylegacy | ic inbox / drift fleet

Just not the same for them, I guess.

Like, obviously most people care about their family, but it seems like most places there's just not the same type of structure. I guess that's the best way to put it.

And in a place like this, people are more interested in you instead of the family you come from - not that that's necessarily a bad thing, it's just that I grew up with people immediately knowing a lot about me just based on my name, you know?

I know. It's strange not to have that shorthand. Even though most people growing up didn't know what my grandfather had done, they knew my father, the kind of man he was.

Yeah, exactly. My dad was in charge of one of the major departments that run the village, so everybody knew him. And like I said before, a lot of specific chakra techniques are passed down through families, so in general, when people ask for a Yamanaka -- it's for a certain reason.

I'm sorry you had to leave that behind.

. . . I used to think family was everything. I know it's not now, but. It's still a lot.

[ There wasn't much left to leave behind, if she's being honest. Now that her dad is dead, it feels like there's a whole lot of nothing, there. ]

Doesn't have to be the whole world to be pretty damn important, yeah.

Okay, so there must be a lot of stories you heard about your family, right? Do you have a favorite?

I do. But it's not really a happy story, and it's one I saw, not one I was told.

Still, if it's your favorite, I'd like to hear it.

[Another brief pause, as he decides whether or not he wants to leave anything out. Maybe "favorite" isn't the right word, but - it's the most important one, and he knows he made a mistake not telling Joseph sooner. He doesn't want to make that mistake again.]

My father was a little like Joseph. He didn't want us to be involved in the family legacy. So he left when we were young and didn't say why. He was chasing the creatures responsible for creating the man who killed my grandfather. But we thought he'd just . . . left.

I met him again later, when I was an adult. I don't think he recognized who I was, but I recognized him, so I followed him. I wanted to [beat the shit out of him until he died] ask why he'd left. And then . . . there was a sculpture in the wall that I'd never seen before, and I reached out to touch it, and he pushed me away, and it absorbed him and killed him, just like that. It was what he'd been chasing all that time. And that's how I found out. He saved me, even though he didn't know me.

[ Well, he did say it wasn't HAPPY ...

... But that's his favorite? There's a pause where she ... figures out how to react to that. ]

I'm sorry.

[Spoilers, Ino: Caesar Zeppeli is not a very happy person.]

That's all right. It was a while ago.

[ IT'S OKAY, DUDE, SHE FEELS YOU. It's more the whole statue in a wall thing that's got her kind of weirded out.

There's another pause ]

Just because it was awhile ago doesn't mean it has to be all right.

It was awhile ago, but my dad did something similar for me. We were at war the last time I was home, and that's one of the last things I remember.

What does it feel like to you when people say they're sorry?

[ Another pause. Because she just did it, even though she knows it's ... not actually helpful in any way. Still, she understands the sentiment behind it, even if it is pointless ... which is why she offered it at all. Because there's nothing much else to say, and "me too!" seems a little bit off the mark. ]

Like they wish they could make it better, even if there's nothing that could change the way things happened.

That's fair. Then I'm sorry.

I never really told people, that's why I asked. Just my teacher, and she doesn't react to things emotionally.

Not even Jojo?

[ She's actually kind of honored, now, wow. ]

No. Someone else told him. He wasn't happy about it.

Well, it's not exactly a fun topic of conversation ...

I can't tell if that means you think I was right for not telling him, or he was right to be angry. Or both.

There are plenty of things I've never told my friends because it would have worried them, or because they didn't need to know it. I probably would have done the same thing as you.

Oh.

[That. Makes him feel better, actually.]

Were they angry with you?

Mostly, they never found out.

But I think when they did, if they did, they understood why it was being kept from them. It's just that places like these have ways of making secrets become not so secret anymore.

ic inbox / drift fleet

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