The day of one Uzumaki Naruto started off smoothly enough. Her neighbours' shouts didn't carry through the walls in the morning as they usually did. The sun shone brightly in the sky and the birds chirped outside her window. Even the three minutes that it took to prepare the instant ramen passed quickly, bringing a small smile to Naruto's face. It really seemed like the day was going to go well. Of course, she still had tons of homework to go through to prepare for the next day, but she didn't have to worry about that till the late evening at best.
The plan for today was simple; walk around the village, maybe pull some pranks on unsuspecting villagers and eat ramen, lots of ramen.
Who would have thought that the moment she stepped outside of her tiny apartment, the world was slowly going to come crashing upon her.
Only a few steps away from her home, while passing by the newly put together window displays, she walked into Ami, a girl from her class that was just slightly above her grades wise, as well as her gang. They couldn't leave her alone either, deciding to crowd around her like the ugly vultures she once saw in a book.
"Ami."
"Naruto," the girl said with a smirk on her face. She put her hands on her hips, confidence leaking out of her posture in waves. "Didn't expect to see you here."
A sigh escaped from the blonde's mouth. She really didn't want to deal with the girl. She was just so annoying and always spelt pure trouble.
"What do you want, Ami?" She furrowed her brows, the distaste toward these particular classmates as clear as the sky
"Oh nothing," her sing-song voice soaked in sarcasm carried through the wind. "Just thought you would be up for a short...sparring session."
Loud giggles erupted at Ami's words and her gang shook as one mindless mass unable to contain their true intentions. As the leader, the young girl turned in their direction, shushing
them with one annoyed look.
Naruto looked around and curled her hands into fists. She could do it. Ami might have had better grades than her, but she was the one that beat her ass during the taijutsu practices. It being a five to one was just a minor detail. A little something that she was going to deal with. Somehow.
Her eyes went from one girl to the other, waiting for someone, anyone, to make a move.
A girl standing next to Ami turned out to be the first one. She swung her fist, aiming for her nose. The wind swooshed in Naruto's ears and her heartbeat quickened when she just barely missed the blow. She crouched, quickly hitting the girl right in the stomach and making her baulk from the pain.
Naruto knew she could pack a mean punch, but seeing it in action made her smile, showcasing her sharp teeth to the world.
She pushed the girl away and turned to the next person in line for a beating. A girl with a ponytail swiped at her legs to make her fall, but she was faster and a simple jump saved her from the embarrassment.
She was so fixated on the fight that the fact that they were still in the middle of a street slipped her mind. A firm hand captured her by the collar, pulling her out of the battle haze she was in and holding her in the air like a trophy, successfully stopping the fight.
"What's going on here?!" A booming voice of an older man spread on the street and sent chills down her spine. She wiggled, trying to get out of his tight grasp while Ami and her underlings gathered together. They stood up, Ami as the group leader on the front, and looked at the shinobi that seemed to be responsible for peacekeeping in that area.
"She started it!" Ami shouted and pointed at the blonde girl, not giving anyone else a chance to speak their mind, and definitely not giving it to Naruto herself.
The man looked at the girl he was holding with an ugly scowl, the displeasure of even having to interact with her seeping through his pores.
"Is that so?" At hearing what Naruto's classmates said, he threw her onto the ground like a rag doll. Her body hitting it with a thud and the dust getting into her eyes. She steadied herself, unsure at who to look at. "Well, we can't have that. Please give me your teacher's name so I can inform them of this incident and allow them to give her the necessary punishment." His satisfaction so evident, laced with every word he spoke. He fished out a small notebook and wrote the name of Mizuki Touji.
Naruto's fists tightened, her eyes looking at the situation in front of her in disbelief. She promised herself she wouldn't cry, but seeing the way she was treated so openly, it was hard for tears not to gather at the corners of her eyes.
"This-this is so unfair! Why are you doing this?!" She shouted and staggered to her feet, shaking her head with anger and sadness and just so many feelings that coursed through her body, not allowing her to stand still.
"You want to tell me you weren't the one that punched this poor girl in the stomach? I can't see any bruises on you." The mirth in his eyes was palpable and it froze Naruto in her tracks. He observed them, he saw what happened and still placed all of the blame on her.
She couldn't take it.
The day started so promisingly, but it all dived deep into a hell zone. She knew what the repercussions would be. Maybe if only Ami and her stupid gang of mindless drones gave out the name of Iruka-sensei instead, but they didn't. Probably on purpose too, she mused. It was obvious for everyone who paid just enough attention that Mizuki didn't like her one bit and was harsher with his punishments. After the last couple of pranks, this kind of information right in Mizuki's dirty hands will effectively close her doors to quicker graduation. Behaviour mattering just as much as skills and that wasn't going so well for her either.
She stood silently for awhile, her gaze blank and stuck on the ground. She couldn't do anything. Even gramps wouldn't help her if he knew she joined a meaningless fight on the streets of his village. Naruto bit her lip, anger rising in her once again, spun around, her blonde flowy hair nearly hitting the girl closest to her in the face, and ran.
Tears spilled from her eyes and even if she tried to wipe them away, they continued to pour down her face, unstoppable like rain itself.
She didn't look around, didn't think of where she was going, the constant far away repeating itself in her mind.
She only stopped when she entered a forest. Dark, empty, overwhelming. The aura of it so thick it nearly made her lose her breath. The trees curved down into themselves with the leaves covering the sky, not even a tiny bit of sunlight let through the cover, giving it a nightly appearance. Their barks shaped as if people became one with them, drowning in the invisible water. Grass that was once healthy and shone with its bright colour now murky and brown and as if sticky, clamping on Naruto's legs, not wanting to let go of the only living soul in this part of the woods. She moved forward though, not willing to go back to the safety of the village and dragging herself through the dense, crimson tinted air.
It didn't take her long to see a glimpse of light, guiding her towards a small clearing. While at first, she hoped she got back to the more normal part of the forest, maybe the training grounds that were on the outskirts of the village, after pushing through the warm embrace of bushes and thin branches, Naruto realized that was not the case.
The clearing differed from the rest of the woods, but the air still carried the red tint with it and the light was blinding, sharp, and unpleasant. It didn't warm her or fill her with hope, only creating an illusion from far away. Naruto leaned over and tried to make as little noise as possible, unsure of what to expect. Her hand rested on the ground to support her weight and with that as if she allowed the nature around her, the unnatural cold entered her body. She wrinkled her nose at the feeling but decided to ignore it, now fully stepping into the clearing.
Just when she was going to take another step and look around, Naruto saw a figure sitting in the centre and stopped in her tracks. It was weird. Even if she squinted her eyes, the light was undecided and tried to bounce off as well as shine through the mysterious person at the same time. Their long, shiny red hair circling them like a bloody halo only added to the ethereal look and made Naruto feel unwelcome and hesitant. A bead of cold sweat trickled down her forehead, but her hands didn't even move to wipe it off.
The person soon enough woke up from their slumber, visibly aware of her presence and slowly, taking their sweet time, turned their head around to stare right at her.
It wouldn't be an understatement if Naruto said that she felt like a deer caught in the headlights. Her eyes widened, now as round as the land of fire's coin. The face that greeted her sight looked… just like her own. The colours might have been different, but at the core, it was just too eerily similar to her own face and she didn't know how to respond.
But it seemed like the person? Her older clone or an alien? Was going through the same thought process too. They both stared at each other one. The younger in shock and fear with a big question mark forming itself on her face, while the other one with wonder. Only now did some kind of warmth, unknown to Naruto, flew out of the woman trying to change the surrounding area, make it just a bit more welcoming, sadly with a minor effect.
"Naruto? Is that you? Is that really you?" Her soft voice was full of sorrow and longing, making Naruto's heart clench at the sheer sound of it. The words rang in her ears, louder than in reality because of the overwhelming silence around them. The woman looked on the verge of tears and Naruto duly noted to herself that it didn't really suit her.
How did she even know her name? She had never seen this woman before, with her appearance she would be hard to miss in the crowd. She wished she had a kunai with her, even a wooden one would make her feel just that slightly safer.
A sudden sound alerted her senses. The redhead stood up from her place and was planning to get closer to her, she realized.
"H-hey! Don't come closer! And who the hell are you 'ttebayo?!" Naruto really tried to sound brave and confident, but the small stutter gave her away, making her scowl at her weakness. How was she supposed to be a ninja and go on all the high ranked missions if she was scared of some old, strange lady?
Naruto could see the woman's eyes soften at her words, her lips tightening into a thin line. She kneeled just a few steps away from the blonde, stopping herself from moving with great difficulty.
"I'm sorry Naruto. I'm so sorry I couldn't be there for you," she whispered, ignoring the blonde's question.
"Stop beating around the bush, old lady and just tell me who you are already!" the little girl shouted, impatience apparent in her voice and posture.
"My name is Kushina Uzumaki and I am your mother, Naruto."
Silence rang at her words. Nature around them in its rotten state deflating even more from the tension.
"That's-that's not possible! My mother is dead! Gramps said it himself"—she took a deep breath, her face going red in anger—"he wouldn't lie to me like that!"
Her throat felt rough from all the shouting and her eyes stung from the tears that were trying to escape. She couldn't believe how someone could lie to her so brazenly and openly. There was no way it was the truth. Who cared that they looked just oh so similar and that deep in her heart a bit of hope already started to sprout its roots. It would have meant that she left her. Like in all of the nightmares that she had.
Naruto shook her head. She didn't even want to think of that being the case. A mother would never do that. Her mother.
She looked at the woman again and saw pain flash on her face, her hands tightening on the material of her dress. The longer Naruto looked, the more she could see that there was something weird, unnaturalabout her. Her whole being seemed to shimmer in and out of existence, her hair was so bright and red, yet at the same time, she looked as if someone sucked all her energy, her life out of her creating a strange contrast. The shades of grey with a bluish tint in a never-ending feud with the rest of the colours on her person.
No other human looked like this, Naruto thought to herself, trying her best to control her feelings and not run away from her troubles once again. One time was already enough, if not a bit too much, for her.
She swallowed the lump in her throat and squinted her eyes. No living human looked like this. This…this lifeless.
Naruto took a sharp breath and moved back, tripping on her own feet in the process and landing on her butt. The realization hit her like a truck. This woman. This very strange woman. Was a ghost. She has been talking with a ghost for the last couple of minutes.
"How?" She muttered, her eyes wide with shock. "How is that possible?"
"Do you know what happened during your birth, Naruto?" The woman's eyes turned stern and serious, squashing all the emotions that she could previously see on her face.
"Of course, the Kyuubi no Youko attacked the village,"—she hesitated for a second, uncertainty crossing her face.—"Killing my parents."
She didn't allow herself to think that it was her mother; it was still too soon, too rapid, too surreal. What would she do if it turned out to be a dream or a cruel joke? She wouldn't be able to bear it.
"Yes, that's true," she sighed and pushed the wisp of her hair behind her ear. "But do you know what happened to it?"
"The Yondaime killed it?" Naruto said, unsure of where the conversation was going. Everyone knew about that, so what was the point of all of this?
Another sigh escaped the woman's lips, the weariness visibly settling on her face.
"False. He sealed it inside the only person that could handle the strain on the chakra from the massive beast that is Kyuubi." She looked her straight in the eyes, a solemn expression on her face. "You."
Naruto froze in her tracks, but Kushina didn't give her any time to let her digest the news.
"I know this is a lot of information for you to take in Naruto and I'm sorry you couldn't learn this from me differently, but you need to know what happened that night.
I don't know how you can see me in this form, but I'll use it to our advantage. I suspect it has something to do with the Hakke no Fuuin, the seal that was used by Minato. From what I remember, it summoned the Shinigami to complete the sealing process," she frowned, displeased by what had to be done. "It's possible that by being this close to the Shinigami and your seal being such a vital part in your growth, it helped you to develop"—she waved her hand in the air—"whatever this ability of yours is."
Naruto felt like she was going to faint. The amount of information, and the subject of it too, made her lightheaded, the emotions that still swarmed unresolved inside her body not helping in the slightest. How was it all possible? Why did no one tell her? She was talking with her dead mother in some clearing she found by a chance. What if she never stumbled across it? Would she have met her? Seen her and talked to her like this? All the questions filled her mind, not letting her breathe and calm down. Repeating themselves, one thought shouting over the other. It was all just so much.
"That night… It wasn't supposed to go the way it did. Minato made sure to secure the area and did everything in his power to keep the Kyuubi inside my seal in check but," Naruto could feel the anger radiating from the woman, barely catching that her-her mother had a demon sealed inside her as well. The red haze hovering in the air becoming more visible by the second. "A dangerous masked man showed up and in a blink of an eye, Kyuubi was on the loose destroying the village. As a Hokage Minato had no choice but to pass this power to you in hopes, you could do what he couldn't."
"Why?" Naruto asked softly, her voice but a whisper. Her eyes directed right at Kushina's; she hoped she could communicate what she was feeling this way. The confusion, the shock and the anger at everything that was going on at that moment. The turmoil inside her swallowing her like a whirlpool, unrelenting in its pursuit to make her lose herself. She sucked in the air, the red haze entering her system closing on her, tightening around her coils, resonating with the dark dark void inside of her. The sound of dripping water interlocking and taking over her consciousness.
A shot of freezing liquid-like form went through her chest, bringing her back to reality with a shudder and clearing the fog from her mind. Only now hearing a muffled shouting of her name. Kushina was looking right at her, her wide blue eyes filled with worry, her mouth slightly agape after the frantic shout. She had got closer during Naruto's short trip, seemingly wanting to grasp her by the shoulders and shake her till she wakes up but instead, her hands flew inside of the girl, the lack of a corporeal form apparent at that moment.
"Are you alright?" The care for Naruto's wellbeing was deeply ingrained in her voice and her eyes showed Kushina's feelings to the world. "I shouldn't have told you everything immediately. People have always told me not to rush so much," she said with an awkward smile, her posture relaxing after seeing that the blonde wasn't slipping back into that state.
"You should go back home and rest, it's getting late and I don't want you to get in trouble."
Her quiet laugh spread around the area.
"Can't you come with me? Now that we can spend time together?" Naruto looked at the woman's face, the hope that sprouted earlier in the day now in full bloom. She didn't want to go back to her empty apartment.
"I… I can't." Kushina shook her head. "The haze that you see here...It comes with me whenever I try to leave and while you are safe from its corrosive nature, anyone else in its vicinity would be affected."
"Then I'm gonna stay here with you! Shinobi have to sleep in the wild. It will be a good exercise!" She shouted after hearing her words and stood firm on the ground for once thankful for the grass's stickiness.
"Naruto, no. Anyone can stumble upon here and it's too far from the village to be safe," Kushina put her hands on her hips, the puppy eyes that Naruto started unintentionally not working on her in the slightest. "I can't protect you, Naruto. I don't have an actual body to call on in case something happens and I'm not giving the world a chance to hurt you."
The blonde couldn't help but feel hurt at what she was hearing. Of course, it made sense if she thought about it, but… She wanted to stay with her, the mother she never had before that day.
"I'm not leaving anywhere. I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow," Kushina said as if she read her mind.
Naruto, still doubtful, looked at the woman in front of her, trying to remember as many details about her as she could.
After one last look, she spun around and, not looking back, ran straight to the village.
The road back to her tiny apartment was a strange one. She would normally swing by Ichiraku Ramen, but the day ended up exhausting her completely, especially after all the adrenaline ran out. She, by pure will alone, took a step after step, her tired eyes sweeping through the streets. The faceless masses passing her by. Never before did she realize that many of the faces she saw every day weren't as colourful, as lively, as she might have thought in her rush. Their eyes were dead, devoid of any spark, and it made a bit more sense why she always felt the cold enveloping her when walking down the streets. Konoha was in a big part, a ghost village, full of people stuck between the realms. No matter where she looked, there was at least one or two deceased, in the windows, in the shops, hidden in the dark alleys as if waiting to possess her mind.
A shudder went through her body at that thought.
Not many of them did anything. Most standing in place, oblivious to their surroundings and looking as if they were deep in thought and letting the living pass through them. Kushina seemed to be an exception, being able to move around freely, ignoring the following her haze, talk and not stuck in time. Naruto couldn't help but feel a little proud of how badass her mother was defying the rules like that.
She raised her hand to her forehead, hissing in pain from the rising headache. The more she put conscious effort into finding the hidden ghosts in the crowd, the worse it got. She was so going to throw herself on the bed when she got back home. Even the memory of how she once broke the bed this way wasn't going to stop her.