After dinner, Matthew was waiting for him at the entrance of the cabin area, a warm, knowing welcoming on his face. "Hey, Luke. You've been so busy playing prodigy you haven't officially sat down with the family yet."
Family?" Luke blinked, his hand instinctively reaching for the orange cover of his book like a shield. "I'm pretty sure I share a room with nearly fifty of you. I've smelled the collective family socks, Matthew. I'm well-acquainted."
"Not the unclaimed kid. Your blood," Matthew said, gesturing toward the side of the cabin.
There they were. Thirteen of them.
A random, ragtag assembly ranging from five to fifteen. Luke stood rooted to the spot as they approached. Internally, his mind was screaming for an exit strategy.
Twelve, thirteen... By the Sage, that's a lot of kids. Holy shit, Hermes has been busy, Luke thought hysterically.This is a nightmare right. Why are they all smiling? Stop smiling, it's suspicious.
But as they drew closer, something shifted.
It was a pressure in his chest, a sudden warmth that only intensified as he looked at a young girl with curly hair and the same eyes that he saw in the mirror, and his heart did a strange, uncomfortable flip.
Oh. Oh no, he thought, even as a small, seven-year-old boy named Leo lunged forward and wrapped his arms around Luke's waist. Travis and Connor, the six year old kids leaped on him, while simultaneously trying pickpocketing him. Luke stood limp, he couldn't even muster the energy to deter their prying hands. His instincts were screaming at him to take cover and hide. But he couldn't move, he was paralysed by this strange overwhelming feeling that was flowing over him.
They're actually mine. Is this what 'kinship' feels like, or am I having a stroke?
"We were waiting for you to get back," a girl named Alice said, stepping forward. She was a pretty twelve old girl with red hair and those same eyes as mine. As she reached out and playfully ruffled Luke's silver hair, an act of daring that would have cost a monster its life. Luke didn't move. He couldn't. He felt the warmth blooming from where her fingertips touched his scalp, a soft, buzzing feeling.
"Oh my God," she squealed, "Your hair is soooo soft, and you're wearing a mask like a wannabe edgelord." She pinched his cheeks over his mask, "You. Are. Adorable" she pronounced with finality, "Even though you're a bloody pervert reading your smut and giggling constantly."
"It's art" he defended reflexively.
A seven year old girl stepped forward talking rapidly, "Hey big brother, I'm Maya Thorne, you were so fast on the climbing wall, and when you fought with Chiron it was all whoosh, and wham. When are you going to teach me that. I wanna be fight with a sword like that….."
Luke's brain had frozen after he heard big brother. Her chatter had faded into white noise. His ears burned a vivid, undeniable red. It was overwhelming. It was too much noise, too much scent, too much belonging. Is this what being a kid felt like again? His usually perfect emotional regulation was completely off-kilter.
Please, gods, someone, strike me down right now. A distraction would be very very welcome right now. Curse you Hermes for being so goddamn horny, have you never learnt of something called birth control.
Luke, unfortunately was not blessed to have a divine sign excuse. And for the next half an hour he had stood frozen, barely moving except to make the occasional response and nod his head robotically, as his siblings chattered around him.
_________
The sun had long since dipped below the Long Island Sound, but the phantom heat of those thirteen bodies still seemed to cling to Luke's skin. He sat perched on the highest branch of a pine tree, far above the chaos of Cabin Eleven.
Mathew had finally taken pity on Luke and pried the hyperactive kids away from him.
"It feels overwhelming right now Luke, but trust me you'll get used to it." Matthew had grinned and ruffled his hair. "It'll be alright kid, we aren't going anywhere."
Luke had remained silent and nodded his head stiffly, before rapidly escaping to get some time alone. To process the flood of emotions running through him right now.
Family. Brothers and sisters. Pack
He looked down at his right hand. It was steady, as always, but he felt… different after the claiming. Like a weight had settled in him.
Maa, so that was the 'Claiming,' he thought, his internal voice echoing dryly. A glowing neon sign over my head. Very subtle.
But the cynicism felt paper-thin.
He thought of Alice's hand in his hair, of Leo's small, frantic heart beating against his hip. For a man who had spent a lifetime keeping people at a distance, the weight of thirteen lives suddenly tethered to his own was… terrifying. This was like having Team Seven all over again, except they were related to him, and there were thirteen of them.
Team Seven were at least shinobi, who graduated from the Academy. Well in Naruto's case, finessed his way into a headband. But still, he could treat them like his soldiers. And he was one of the very very lucky few who could say that his team had grown into powerhouses capable of taking care of themselves.
These were kids. Demigods born and bred for battle, but still protected, untested, and some were small, and very cute. How troublesome, he mused, a small, genuine smile tugging at the corner of his mask. I've ended up with a litter of puppies. Thirteen puppies with a penchant for grand larceny and a total disregard for personal space.
He leaned his head back against the bark, silver hair falling over his closed eyes. As the silence of the night deepened, another ghost began to scratch at the back of his mind. A different kind of pack.
Pakkun.
He could almost feel the weight of the miniature pug perched on his shoulder, the coarse, sun-warmed fur, and that permanent, unimpressed scowl. He missed the smell of them, the sharp, wild musk of the Ninken.
Maa, I bet you're complaining about the quality of the jerky wherever you are now, he thought, his chest tightening with a sudden, jagged pang of grief.
In his old life, the dogs weren't just summons; they were for a long time, his sole tether to the world of the living beyond the hollowness of missions. The only ones who didn't need words to understand the weight of a failed mission or the hollow ache of loneliness in the village. Pakkun, Bull, Bisuke, Shiba, Akino... they were a collective heart that beat outside his own body.
He missed the way Pakkun would grumble about his soft paws being damaged, while tracking a target. He missed the quiet dignity of Shiba and the chaotic energy of Akino.
For a moment, he felt a crushing loneliness, a sense of being a stranger in a foreign land, a ghost forcefully tethered to the world of the living in a world and body not his own.
"You'd like it here, Pakkun," Luke whispered into the dark, his voice cracking just a fraction. "They have so many types of treats even though the kids are too loud."
He closed his eyes, and for a fleeting second, he allowed himself to imagine the weight of eight loyal hounds curled around him in the dark.
Stay safe, you lazy mutts, he thought, pulling his knees to his chest. I'll try and find a way to keep your memory alive.
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