Has anyone else ever done this?
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
It is high noon in the besieged village of Namigakure, seat of Uzu no Kuni. The sea laps all around the shores of the island country, and the sun is shining bright as if to mock the destruction that looms in the weapons of the Mist nin.
Kushina screams. Rubble splays out on the path; she's knocked off her feet. Behind her, her red-headed twin Arashi hits the ground with a thump as well, rubbing his forehead in a daze, his eyes, purple-gray like hers, out of focus.
They are in a line of refugees; their mother is one of the kunoichi guarding it. The children are jostled back and forth on their way to the ships taking all civilians off of Nami; the Kiri nin will find an extremely unpleasant surprise waiting for them when they finally fight their way in.
Kushina's lost sight of her mother; she wishes she could see even a slight flash of copper hair as bright as the sun, just so she could know that her mother is still alive, that her strong-willed kunoichi mother lives to fight still.
The ground trembles under her feet, and the very sky seems to shake with the brutality of the Kiri and the rage of the Nami. Shrill screams of rubble and catapult fodder splits the crisp salt air.
Four year old Kushina feels tears wash anew down her face as she struggles to maintain her composure, and reaches for her brother's hand to comfort her. Arashi clings to her, trembling.
"Neechan?" He calls her 'neechan' even thought they're twins. "Where's Kaasan and Tousan?"
Kushina doesn't answer.
But as if some benevolent god has decided to give them one small comfort, a shadow falls over them.
"There you are!" their mother swoops down upon them, and Kushina lets out a small scream. She had half expected it to be a Mist nin accompanied by a hail of kunai. Their mother is almost perfectly identical to them, except her eyes are a vivid, burning emerald. A long cut runs on her cheek; her full lips are pursed with caution and worry.
"Are you both alright, Kushina, Arashi?" Her hands press down on their hair; her voice throbs with the killer instinct combined with the mother instinct to form an almost impossible stew of human emotion.
Arashi does nothing, but Kushina nods mutely. She lies. She is not alright. She's scared, bleeding, terrified, and… Tousan. Where's Tousan?
"Manami-sama!" All three look up and stiffen as a Nami nin speaks Kushina's mother's name. His footsteps make Kushina's heart pound; any second now, she is sure, the Mist will come pouring in over the walls like the water their land was named for, a screaming torrent to flush out the shinobi of the Whirlpool Country.
"Uzukage-sama is coming! He wishes to speak to you." Almost immediately after that, a tall man in rent and ragged white kage robes, his dark gold hair fluttering in the breeze, steps onto the grassy hill.
"Tousan!" Arashi cries in relief.
His voice is soon joined by Manami's. "Tanjiro!" She tears to where he stands, tall and ragged, but unbowed.
Kushina starts to cry. Her father is safe, he's alive, and they'll all be happy together wherever their going…
"What do you mean you're staying here?" Kushina's last illusion shatters when she hears her mother's voice tremble and rise. "Tanjiro! Don't you know, you'll be killed!"
Uzumaki Tanjiro smiles sadly at his wife. "Manami, I'm the Uzukage. I'm staying with the men and women who have elected to defend Nami in her last moments. I owe that much to them."
"Then I'm staying with you," Manami declares, raising her chin in that slightly willful fashion that her husband has always loved so much. "I won't leave you alone, to die here."
Tanjiro smiles, but his mouth twists in such a way that Kushina knows he's on the verge of shedding tears. The sound of bomb blasts edges closer. "Manami, you have to get on that boat."
"But—"
"Think of Kushina and Arashi; they need you, far more than I do. What would they do without you?"
Tanjiro walks to his children where they stand several yards away. To the others, he's the Sandaime Uzukage without his hat; they bow to him subserviently, and wonder why he's here and not out there fighting. But to Kushina, he's not Uzukage-sama or Uzumaki-sama, he's Tousan.
And that makes all the difference.
Tanjiro gets on one knee, his hands on his children's shoulders; his kage robes flutter behind him in the salt breeze His eyes, violet-gray like his children's, bear into them with startling intensity. At this close proximity, Kushina can see dark weary circles under her father's eyes, smell blood, sweat and salt on him. "Kushina, Arashi, children. I need you to listen to me."
"Tousan?" Arashi's voice flutters with tears, but Kushina holds her head high.
"I need you to be brave. I need you to stay with your mother, and give her as much help as you can. I need you to be strong, and hold your heads high. And most of all, I need you to never forget Namigakure."
Tremulously, they nod. Gently, Tanjiro pulls them into his embrace. "Goodbye, my darling children," he whispers, choking on his own words. "Goodbye."
Goodbye…
Goodbye…
Later, Kushina is on a ship rocking back and forth away from Nami on the vivid sapphire ocean. Other children cry, but she does not. She is a kage's daughter; even as young as she is, she will not show fear.
But then, her situation changes.
She watches, her eyes too horrified to even blink, as the final destruction of Namigakure swallows up the island, and Uzu no Kuni, the land of her heart, is consumed by a burning pillar of smoke.
And Kushina lets out a soundless scream to the village, praying that someone will hear.
Tousan!!!!
Because she is not a kage's daughter anymore. She is just another refugee, fleeing her burning homeland, bound for a world where she will be at the mercy of rivals and enemies.
And she knows…
…That nothing will ever be the same.