Then There Were Two
Summary: Naruto Uzumaki...Katsumi Uzumaki...are the twin children of the Honorable, Late Fourth Hokage...both outcasted by Konoha, the two find strength in one another that is incomparable and irreplaceable. The Teams...are quite different now, and the future...is looking more than a little bit brighter…or is that but the calm, before the storm?
Anime/Manga: Naruto
Genre: Romance/Humor/Adventure
Pairing: I... know who with who will be. I'll let you guys fidget and wonder.
Rated: M for Mature
-x-x-x-
When your day is long,
and the night, the night is yours alone.
When you're sure you've had enough,
of this life, well hang on.
Don't let yourself go,
ćause everybody cries.
And everybody hurts sometimes.
- Everybody Hurts (Jasmine Thompson)
-x-x-x-
"That's quite the tale," Kurenai commented as she listened to Hayate finish telling them about the night before. Ibiki had only been present for when the medic had pulled the Senbon from Baki's neck, then he did his job. "Katsumi really came through for you, didn't she?"
"I won't deny I'm thankful, ekhm."
Genma sighed, "I'm just glad that you didn't die."
"The feeling is mutual. Ekhm."
"Yeah, they would have made me the proctor for the next part of the Chuunin Exams if you'd gone and gotten yourself killed."
Asuma laughed at the frown on Hayate's face and the smirk on Genma's. "You know he doesn't mean it, Hayate. Hey, where did Katsumi run off to so quickly?" He glanced behind them, taking the stairs, they had lost Katsumi not too long ago.
"She's not used to praise, and the Third Hokage stood up for her quite a bit back there. She's probably gone off in search of a quiet place to think."
"...quiet?" Kurenai looked at the bustling streets and frowned, "is there somewhere that's quiet in Konoha right now?"
Iruka looked thoughtfully at the ground before nodding, "I can think of one place."
One place...
-x-x-x-
Katsumi looked down curiously at the marble stone. "What the hell is the Will of Fire? Saying things recklessly without taking my feelings into consideration." She placed her hands on either side of the monument and glared at her reflection. Her hair fell over her shoulders and she dropped before the stone onto her knees. Looking at the stone, she crawled around to the other side of the stone and looked at the names. "The names, there's so many...Tobirama Senju...that's...that was the Second Hokage." Her eyes trailed over the names, she took each one in, a long list of Shinobi who'd died risking their lives for Konoha and its villagers. "...Uzumaki...Kushina?" She tilted her head at the name.
"There you are,"
Her finger lingered on the name, catching the reflection of Genma in the stone, she stared a moment longer before turning to face him. "Hey,"
"Hey yourself," he pulled something from his pocket and held it out in front of him, "a few were missing."
She smiled, standing and walking the distance between them before reaching out, "I kept two just in case. I'm glad I did."
He let her take the velveteen wrapped Senbon and looked past her at the stone. "What were you looking at?"
"The names, a name. One...Kushina Uzumaki."
His eyes widened and he looked down at her, but her eyes were on the Senbon in her hand. She had one held loosely between her thumb and pointer finger, twirling it around a bit before lying it back down in the wrap.
"Your quiet," she glanced up at him and smiled, "don't worry, I won't ask questions. I imagine, if no one's told me anything about my parents till now, nothing's going to change if I ask. Um, though, did you know her?"
He sighed, "yeah, I did."
She grinned, "would you say I'm like her?"
"Only a lot."
Laughing, she skipped back to the stone and crouched down before it, looking at the name, her eyes sparkled as she wondered what the woman was like. 'Kushina Uzumaki...' she shook her head before resting it on her knees, "was she blonde like me?"
"Nope, red hair. Long, long, looooong, red hair. I have no clue how she managed it."
"Longer than mine?" She fingered the tips curiously.
"Much longer, a bit shorter than I am, her hair fell past her knees." He walked towards the stone and sat down beside her, leaning back on one hand as he brought a knee up. Thinking back to the red head and her husband, he looked to Katsumi and smiled sadly.
Katsumi jumped at the feel of a hand on her cheek, turning in her surprise, she watched Genma lift his hand from her cheek and followed the glisten of a tear. 'I'm crying?' She raised a hand to her eyes and wiped her tears away before closing them tightly and burying her head in her arms.
"I guess, if you really want to know about your parents, you could always bug the Hokage until he tells you."
A muffled laugh sounded from where her face was hidden, and she shook her head before lifting it, "I don't want to upset anyone by asking. I'll...investigate my parents on my own time. Oh, you know! When I was younger though, I had this crazy idea that the Honorable Fourth Hokage was mine and Naruto's dad. Haha, I guess," she smiled sadly, "when you have no one, you let your imagination run rampant. It didn't help that Naruto looked like him either...but this," she pointed at the name on the stone, "pretty much tosses that theory out the metaphorical window."
"Sigh~" Genma nodded, "let's go eat before you start shadowing those three."
"Those three? Saying it so ominously, you better have some interesting stories to tell me about them if you're going to talk like they're some evil entity."
Rolling his eyes, he stood up and held his hand out for Katsumi, "food first, stories later." He glanced to his right before the two of them took off. Katsumi was none the wiser to the ears listening in on their conversation, and he wasn't about to mention it either.
-x-x-x-
Silent steps stepped lightly through the grass and up to the Memorial Stone, a shadow cast over the names engraved. "To believe in, to cherish and to fight to protect the village and its people, just as previous generations have before us. That is, the Will of Fire. Kushina, can you see your daughter? Isn't she just as outstanding and vivacious as you were when you were her age?" Laughter sounded in a full tenor as old and sad eyes stared down at the stone. "She quite the intelligent little Genin. Ready to turn the world upside down, like her mother was, but her father's intellectual and more rational side is somewhere in her, holding her back. I wonder what she'll do, when she's older."
-x-x-x-
Placing the last of the daisies in the vase to her right, Ino smiled as she reached back behind her back and pulled on the ties of her apron. She heard the door open behind her and turned to see Shikamaru walking in with a look of boredom heavy in his eyes.
"Hey, Ino, have you seen Katsumi around?"
"Katsumi? Shikamaru, are you losing your mind already?" Ino folded her apron and laid it on the counter in the flower shop, "I told you that lazing around and staring up at clouds all day would turn you into an old fossil. The memory is the first thing to go."
"Your implication that only the elderly take time to enjoy watching the clouds is dully noted."
She rolled her eyes, passing him as she waved to her mother. "Katsumi hasn't returned from the Land of the Waves."
"Well, you're wrong about that. She got back last night."
"What!? Hm..." she frowned, "then, is she sleeping still?"
"Nope, ran into her this morning,"
"I'd say...oh, she's with Genma!"
Shikamaru shook his head and sighed, "what? How'd you come to that conclusion?"
She smirked and placed an arm over his shoulders before turning his face in the direction she was looking, "because I can see them."
-x-x-x-
Me: Here is chapter 26, another chapter that I had written, didn't like, and rewrote! So, another chapter that you'll never know the original content of. XD gotta love it!