A/N: I would like to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows as well as everyone that reviewed the last chapter.
"What are you doing here, Katsuki? Did your Mum ask you to check up on me again?"
Bakugou scowled and folded his arms as his red eyes fixated on his elderly grandmother. At the age of 74, Akimoto Narumi was still an old woman going strong. Then again when he considered all the things his grandmother went through, it was kind of hard for her not to be tough. Most of the females in his mother's side of the family always seemed to be made out of rocks.
"I wanted to ask about Minato-ojisan's father." It might have been a day since Whiskers informed them about the truth, but the knowledge that there might be another set of countries had brought up a new set of questions. Was there a chance that his uncle was in the Elemental Countries? It would make sense of why they couldn't catch him.
His grandmother pressed her lips into a thin line, eyebrows twitching as it always happened whenever someone brought up her ex-boyfriend. The elder woman grunted, put her hands behind her back and jerked her head inside. The usual fondness in his grandmother's eyes faded, replaced with rage and sadness as Bakugou made his way into the house.
It had been months since Bakugou came to his grandmother's house, not since his grandfather died. Photos of his mother growing up decorated the hall way alongside the various photo of him being around her and Gramps. He slowed down slightly when he caught sight of the photos of his uncle. The only photos his grandmother had were the photos of Minato-ojisan growing up from a baby to the age of six.
"Why do you want to know about that good-for-nothing bastard?" His grandmother took a seat on the armchair, bright blue eyes fixated on the only family photo that she had with her two children. Narumi clenched and unclenched her hands, looking ready to beat up anyone. If the bastard was here, Grams will annihilate him. He snorted at the thought.
Bakugou focused his eyes on his scowling grandmother and took a deep breath. "Did he ever have a Quirk?"
Silence hung between them and Narumi fixated her eyes on the photo of a young Minato. Bakugou scowled and cracked his knuckles, taking deep breaths not to raise his voice at his grandmother. He wouldn't even ask if it wasn't for Whiskers. The knowledge that there was a whole different country out there, made him wonder of the possibility. He doesn't care. But his grandmother was bitter.
She was always upset whenever he used to visit her.
'You look so much like your Uncle Minato except he wouldn't be disrespectful to his friend.'
"He did have a Quirk." Bakugou blinked and his grandmother fixated her eyes on the television screen. "It was very similar to the Quirk that girl in your class have."
Bakugou leaned his body forward. "Which one?"
"Uzumaki Naruto." His grandmother sighed and leaned her body forward, blue eyes fixated on him before flickering back to the photo of his uncle. Her lips pressed into a thin line almost like she tasted a bad lemon and Bakugou wondered if there was more to the story that his grandmother had told him and his mother.
The blond-haired boy took a deep breath, straightened his back and stared at the photo of his smiling uncle having his arms wrapped around by his mother. "Could it be possible that Minato-ojisan had the same Quirk as his father? All of you claimed that he was Quirkless."
Narumi eyed him, took a deep breath and stood up from her seat. With her back turned away from him, Bakugou could not make out what was going through the Old Crone's mind. It was a matter of time before his grandmother would question him about his interest, and Bakugou just wanted his suspicions put to rest. But telling his theory to the Old Crone was a bad idea.
If his theory was wrong then his grandmother would suffer from a broken heart. Despite what people believed about him, Bakugou gave a shit about his family and especially his grandmother. While his parents had been too busy running a fashion business, his grandmother had been the one to take care of him.
"We did so many tests just to confirm if your Uncle had a Quirk or not," Bitterness coloured his grandmother's tone and the elder woman picked up the photo of his uncle. She exhaled. "Every single time, we get the same answer: Minato is Quirkless. The closest that we ever had to disapprove the test was when we did an x-ray of his feet. At that time, we had just some hope he had a Quirk."
Bakugou blinked. So there had been a possibility? Like there was a chance that he could have been taken by some Quirk Ring? Maybe his theory was wrong then. But the overprotectiveness I feel for that bitch won't make sense. No way he could have feelings for Whiskers. He just had a very weird desire to protect her.
"What do you mean by some hope?"
His grandmother pressed her lips into a thin line, fingers tracing the features of his young uncle before looking at him with blank eyes. "When we conducted the test on his feet to confirm the lack of a joint, we found that your Uncle had another system in his body. It wasn't the cardiovascular system since they can't be seen easily in X-rays. We conducted more tests, trying to understand it…but nothing made sense."
Another system in his body. Bakugou leaned his body forward, rubbed the sides of his head and stared at his grandmother. Could it be possible for it to have been chakra? He doesn't know shit about it but he would have to ask Whiskers. The last person he wanted to talk to now was Whiskers, not when she had been keeping her powers a secret. He doesn't even know why it bothered him.
They weren't even the best of friends and probably had been friends for two months now.
"I never told Minato about the other system in his body," His grandmother continued, gazing out at the windows. She took a deep breath and fiddled with her fingers before taking a deep breath. The woman rubbed the sides of her head. "I was afraid he would be disappointed since we weren't certain if it was a part of a Quirk or a new system in the human body."
Bakugou pressed his lips into a thin line, rubbed the back of his neck and stared at the photo of his mother with his uncle. Even though he didn't have a Quirk, your uncle was always trying to play hero with me. His mother always became just a little bit more gentle whenever they brought up her brother. He took a deep breath.
He couldn't tell his grandmother about his theory, not when his grandmother would just blew a fuse.
"Grams, when you watch the Sports Festival…what did you think of Uzumaki Naruto?" He ran his hand through his hair as blue eyes flashed before him. Whenever Bakugou looked at Naruto, he could see his grandmother's blue eyes flashing before him. Except his grandmother could be happy and had a normal childhood while Whiskers was just a weirdo at times.
"Uzumaki Naruto? The girl that wiped the floor with you?" Bakugou scowled and his grandmother laughed. "Don't make that expression, Bakugou Katsuki! You are always going to face someone that is stronger than you, so if you want to wipe the floor with 'em! Get stronger!"
Bakugou pressed his lips into a thin line and scowled. Yeah, he needed to get stronger than Whiskers but how the hell could he get stronger? Whiskers was ahead of them. She had so many more years of training and more experience. Her use of Chakra meant that she outclassed him. He grinded his teeth together. There had to be a way to beat her.
"So what do you think of her?" He repeated himself again.
"She seems like a firecracker," his grandmother eyed him. "What? Do you have a crush on her?"
Bakugou scowled. "Fuck no. She is in love with someone else!"
His grandmother chuckled and doesn't even bother to correct him. He looked out to the television screen, eyebrows knitting together and slipped his hands into his pocket. Should he point out that Uzumaki look like Minato-ojisan? But if his grandmother breaks down then he didn't know how to deal with an upset woman.
He doesn't even know if his grandmother would want to hear his theory.
He would have to ask Whiskers if she knew of a way to figure out if his uncle had been in the Elemental Countries.
"What are you doing here?"
Naruto was five minutes early for her shift in the café and instead of being greeted by the smiling faces of her customers, she was greeted by the Head of the Uzumaki Clan. Should she be glad that it was him greeting her instead of her customers? She didn't have to put on a smile around him or make up some excuse for the bags under her eyes. Last night had been a disaster for her.
She spent the whole night replaying Shouto's words.
You will always have me, I promise you that. Those words really affected her and it took all of her willpower not to do something reckless and impulsive again. Naruto sighed and rubbed the back of her neck as hazel eyes locked eyes on her. Kenji rubbed the back of his neck, shifting back and forth and avoiding looking at her eyes. He cleared his throat.
"Didn't my son tell you that I wanted to talk to you?" Hesitance colored his tone and the man gazed at the windows of the café. His hazel eyes seemed locked onto a couple. A young blond-haired man flushing red and smiling with embarrassment as his red-haired girlfriend giggled, looking absolutely smitten at the sight before her. Kenji shook his head.
Naruto blinked and nodded, chewing her tongue in order to stop herself from spilling the truth to him. After what happened yesterday, it escaped her mind that Kenji was going to come to her workplace like she offered. With those Kumo nin and her spilling everything to three of her friends, it had been easy to just not think about today.
"So what do you want to talk about?" She cleared her throat and shoved her hands into her pockets, uncertain of where to go next with the whole thing. Does she offer to take him inside and have a talk? Or does she tell him that she was not in the mood to hear whatever he wanted to talk to her about? She sighed.
Kenji flickered his eyes around, pressed his lips into a thin line and hunched his shoulders. "Can we talk in private? This isn't the type of conversation that we should have in public."
Naruto sighed and bobbed her head, flickering her eyes at the various civilians that seemed intent of walking around with smiles on their faces. Even though they seemed more interested with running to the nearest bus stop or talking to their friends, there was always a risk that someone might overhear them. She slumped her shoulders.
"Follow me." Kenji raised an eyebrow and Naruto gestured for him to follow her. She hummed a small tune as her bright blue eyes fixated on the street right inside of her. Why does he want to talk to her? They haven't seen each other for a week so why did he want her to talk to her as soon as he came back? She sighed and chewed on her bottom lip, clicking her heels together.
"So what do you w—" Her words died down when she turned her whole body around and stared at the sight of the Head of the Uzumaki Clan kneeling down. He bowed his head down, not looking her in the eyes and instead focused on the ground. Her throat clogged up and the blonde cleared her throat. "What are you doing?"
"I want to apologize to you for not being there for you." His voice croaked and Naruto just stared at him, words stuck in her throat as the red-haired man looked at her in the eyes. His eyes seemed misty and the blond-haired girl blinked. "I'm sorry for not taking you in or checking up on your Mum. Kushina meant the world to me and I'm sorry for never stopping my grandfather when he decided on Kushina becoming a jinchuuriki."
Sincerity colored his tone and Naruto wanted to accept his apology but she wasn't ready just yet. A week ago, she would have told him flat out no to his apology but a lot of things happened so far. It would just seem petty for her to say she didn't forgive him but she wasn't ready just yet to accept his apology. But she would listen to him.
"You know sorry won't make up for what happened to me or my mother." Naruto took a deep breath and stared at the tabby cats that seemed to crawl and stretch their body. Should I bring a cat doll when I visit Eri? She chewed on her bottom lip.
Kenji cleared his throat. "I know and you are within your right if you decided not to accept my apology. But there are two things that I want to give you."
"Two things?" Naruto blinked as Kenji stood up from his seat. He rubbed his eyes, cleared his throat and pulled out a piece of paper from his jacket. The blond-haired girl blinked, knitted her eyebrows as the piece of paper revealed a sketch. Blue eyes widened when she realized that the female in the sketch was her mother.
"I drew this when your Mum announced she planned to marry your father," Kenji cleared his throat and handed her the sketch. My father? She cleared her throat and looked down at the sketch. The sketch of her mother looked so similar to the photo that Akira gave her, so the sketch of her father must be similar. But how could he be certain that this was her father? Her possible father looked really similar to Bakugou.
It made her stomach turned with unease.
She cleared her throat. "Why are you certain that he is my father? And why would my mother want to get married? She should have known better! Love and relationships are risky after all!"
"You might have your Mum's facial features but you have his colouring," Kenji pointed to the man in the sketch and he rubbed the back of his neck. He leaned away slightly, flickering his eyes everywhere before looking at her. "And your Mum wanted to get married because she was in love with your Dad. Why else would she want to take such a huge commitment?"
"But being a jinchuuriki means—"
"Let me stop you right there, Naruto." Kenji held his hand up and Naruto blinked as the red-haired man took in several deep breaths. "Just because you have the Kyuubi inside of your gut, doesn't mean you aren't allowed to fall in love. In fact it would be encouraged for you to have feelings for someone."
Naruto blinked. "What? But the Kyuubi—"
"Look I won't speak to you as a head of the Uzumaki Clan or your relative," The red-haired man ran his hand through his hair and took a deep breath, hazel eyes focusing on her. "I will speak to you as a seal master. That seal you have on you can be the strongest thing in the world but it will weaken if you cling to hate. The Kyuubi feeds on hate and so tell me what is the opposite of hate? What will keep the Kyuubi at bay?"
Naruto blinked and felt her throat tightened as she realized what the man was trying to tell her. "Love."
"Your Mum loved this man and when your Mum loves someone, she doesn't change her mind." The blond-haired girl blinked and stared down at the sketch of her mother and possible father. Kenji stared down at the sketch. "Love is what helped Kushina keep the Kyuubi at bay. It never really matter to her that loving your Dad was a risk, she went for it."
Mum really had a lot of guts.
Naruto chewed on her bottom lips. "But her actions caused—"
"A lot of deaths? No, it was bad preparation and maybe something else." Kenji shook his head and stared at her. "But it won't happen again. If you are worried about the seal weakening if you ever decided on having kids and having a relationship then don't worry about it. You have the whole clan to help you take care of it. Being a jinchuuriki should never be a reason for you to stop yourself from having a relationship."
So I'm allowed to fall in love? To have romantic relationships? Naruto chewed on her bottom lip and stopped herself from asking him. For some strange reason, Shouto came into her mind and the blonde looked down at her feet, cheeks flushing red. So if she did have feelings for Shouto then it would be alright for her to act on them. But she couldn't act on her confusing feelings until she figured things out.
But the point was that she was allowed to pursue a relationship without fearing a backlash.
"And what was the second thing that you want to give to me?"
Kenji pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to her. Is this a check? Naruto blinked and looked down at the paper, blue eyes widening as she read the value on the check paper. ¥2,000,000. That was so much money. More money than she could make one month in her part time job. She cleared her throat.
"Why the hell are you giving me so much money?" Naruto steadied her trembling arms and looked down at the check. "I'm not going to forgive you just because you gave me so much money. ¥2,000,000 or even more money won't be enough to convince me to forgive you."
Kenji nodded. "I know but this is just a small piece of the compensation that Konoha owes you and the clan."
Naruto stared at him and looked down at the check. This was the money that Konoha was giving her for her suffering? This won't be enough for her to forget what happened. It would not be enough to look at the village without feeling hurt. She wanted something else. She just didn't know what she wanted from them.
"The money that Tsunade and the council gave me are all for you," Naruto blinked and Kenji looked at her. "There is more money but I will give you the rest of the money in installations since it will look fishy if I transferred so much money to you. And I'm not here to ask for forgivness or want it, I am trying to do the right thing for you."
Naruto stared at him and chewed on her bottom lip, uncertain of what to say to him. Was he being sincere to her? It felt like he was making an effort to her but should she accept it? This was so much money, enough money for her to maybe open her own agency when she graduate high school. She took a deep breath and gulped down a lump.
Kenji stared at her and cleared his throat as Naruto stuffed the check into her work bag.
"Akira-obaasama told me that she began to train you on how to make our chakra chains." Kenji rubbed the back of his neck and looked out to the pedestrians that seemed to be strolling without a care in the world. "Just as it's your birthright to learn how to make it, it is also your birthright to learn how to make seals. If you want, I can teach it to you. If not me…well I will find someone else to teach you."
Naruto stared at him and pressed her lips into a thin line. "I don't know if I want to forgive you."
"Then don't forgive me." Naruto blinked and Kenji stared down at her. "If you want to avoid me then go ahead but the offer is there. This doesn't have to be me teaching you as a relative. If you want we can make it a student and mentor thing but the ball is in your court."
The blonde eyed him. "I will use you to get stronger."
Kenji doesn't smile or frown at her words but nodded. "Then use me if you want to. If you want to become a good hero or a kunoichi then I will be your tool."
Naruto looked at him and thinks to herself that maybe she was jumping the guns by accepting it. But she couldn't afford to be weak, not when there seemed to be so many people after her. She took a deep breath and stared at her relative. For the sake of protecting herself, she would have to do this. She bobbed her head.
"When can I start, Kenji-sensei?"
It would be a month later when Naruto learns more about her family and the secrets that have been kept from her. It made her question everything that she knew about herself and her life.
A/N: Please review and tell me what you think of this chapter. The next installation of the series will come out in the next couple of days and I hope that all of you enjoyed reading the second book. Would you like to see more flashbacks in the Third Book?