Uzumaki Kushina is one of the few remaining survivors from the Uzumaki clan. She had met other Uzumakis before. However, the clan members Kushina had encountered previously were either severely ill or were walking the wrong path. Upon hearing the rumors that an Uzumaki had been discovered outside the village, she could not stay still. However, when she arrived at the hospital, she was told that they could not allow visitors who were not the Hokage or guardian. Finally, after many weeks, she can see this person.
Breathing hard, Kushina entered the room that smelled like herbs and rubbing alcohol. Her eyes are wide, and they are staring directly at the young boy in front of her.
Her knees instantly become weak, and she leans against the wooden doorframe.
Cerulean eyes gaze back at her. They widen and then begin looking around as if having a moment of remembering something and searching for what it was.
Standing next to the bed was the Sandaime hokage.
"Ah, hello," greets the Hokage, blinking away the surprise.
Upon realizing how rude she is, Kushina gingerly apologizes and greets: "Hello, Hokage-sama."
Hiruzen smiles at the young boy and points to Kushina with a flat palm.
"This is the person you will be staying with."
Holding back her excitement, she introduces herself: "I am Kushina Uzumaki."
The young boy's eyes widen again, and then the corners of his mouth turn upward.
"Hello, Kushina onee-chan! I'm Uzumaki…" the boy stops himself as if he had instantly forgotten it. He then shakes his head and corrects himself, now sounding unsure. "Ah, I'm Ayumu Uzumaki..."
She bends so that their eyes meet and smiles, "You know what this makes us, Ayumu-kun?"
The boy shakes his head.
The woman whispers as if it were a secret, "That makes us family, Ayumu."
At that, the child instantly freezes then just as quickly snaps out of it. Kushina was too busy finding a seat to notice.
Once she finally finds a chair, Kushina puts the seat beside the bed and suddenly notices the child's stance.
"Ayumu, I understand that you have experienced something awful for you to be in this state," she begins solemnly, "but please understand that we are of the same blood. I won't hurt you."
The younger Uzumaki tilts his head in a questioning manner, his eyes sparkling with innocence.
"I know that Kushina-onee."
Kushina hesitates for a moment, thinking about her words. The young boy trusts her enough to recognize her familiarly.
So why...no...
It's that she's too impatient to give him the chance to relax. He's in the hospital and all of a sudden this crazy lady barges in claiming to be his family. This kid has been through so much that he looks as frail as cracking porcelain. Even so, why does he have that look?
The look of something only those older than beginner genin would know...
Uzumaki Kushina turns her head toward the boy who is sitting up straight on the bed. There really is no mistaking it. The boy had the silence of an ANBU and yet had an air of a Hokage carrying a parasitic burden.
She gives a glance towards the Hokage and he returns the look. They thought the same thing. She turns back to the young boy who was staring at her with large eyes.
Indeed those eyes were innocent, but deep within those innocent eyes held something dark and cold. They are focused and calculating. No matter where Kushina went or how she moved, Ayumu would watch closely with his eyes. Innocent indeed, yet still held such maturity and trauma.
As for the posture of his body, he certainly seems relaxed, yet his shoulders are tense. Needless to say, he was on guard. This obviously has been practiced so many times that the boy made it into a habit.
Just what had happened to him, 'ttebanne?
Kushina's eyebrows tightly knit together as she entered deep thought.
'Was he bred to become a weapon? Was he kidnapped and forced into fights?"
So many concepts swirled through her mind, yet none of them were positive. It wasn't until Hiruzen cleared his throat did she come back to reality.
"Ah, I'm sorry, I spaced out," Kushina laughs. She rubs the back of her neck, blinking away the worry.
'He's okay now.'
Ayumu frowned, nodding as if he understood when really he had no idea what was going on. It was best to pretend to understand than make things more awkward.
The nurse with the pink hair enters the room, letting the Hokage know that visiting times are nearly over. He nods looking back at Ayumu with a smile.
"I must leave now. Kushina will stay with you for about five more minutes."
Ayumu nods again, "Okay. Thank you again for everything you have done for me. I hope you have safe travels."
Hiruzen smiles and then touches Kushina's shoulder, murmuring something next to her ear, no longer smiling.
"Please keep an eye on him. I'm not saying that he's dangerous, but that he could be in danger."
At that, Kushina nods her head and then bows respectfully as he leaves.
When the door clicks shut, Ayumu calls out quietly, "Kushina-onee…"
"Hmm?"
He hesitates a bit before asking: "Am I.. in danger?"Kushina's stomach dropped. Her mind went blank as she tried to search for lies that she could come up with.
"Danger?! What danger? There's no danger!"
"Ah so I am.." Ayumu says quietly.
Kushina mentally screams, feeling herself already getting grey hairs and wrinkles on her face from the amount of stress.
"Just kidding," he says, sticking out his tongue.
This kid!
She couldn't decide whether or not to strangle or scold the kid so she just gave him a stare that could kill.
This didn't seem to affect the boy. He shrugs and gives her a small smile.
"You really need to relax," he says, "I may look frail, but I promise I'm a lot stronger than I look!"
She does relax a bit, staring at him wide-eyed at first, and then sighing.
"Of course you are. You can be stronger than all of the strongest leaders combined if you wanted to," she finally answers in a laugh. There was a second of silence before she spoke awkwardly.
"If ever you were in danger," she pauses, now realizing how cheesy her next words were going to be, "I promise I will do anything in my power to protect you, Ayumu. No matter where no matter when I will find you and fight with all my might to protect you."
Ayumu takes in a deep breath. The room falls silent. Kushina doesn't know what else to say.
"Why do you care so much about me?" He asks in a small, astonished voice. "Even if we have the last name and blood, you barely even know me."
The woman thinks for a moment. What he says isn't wrong. Sure, one can say it was the excitement of finding family in war, but at that moment, she didn't feel excited at all. She genuinely wanted to protect this child as if he was her own brother or son.
There were plenty of reasons to be suspicious of Ayumu, but she couldn't help trusting him.
"I'm not too sure myself," she answers honestly, "but my gut tells me to trust you, so I do." She puts her hand on his head and smiles widely.
"Plus, you're so small and have such soft cheeks. Who wouldn't trust you?" she jokes, pinching his cheeks.
"I'm not that small!" he nearly yells out with a pout.
"Of course you are! You're so small that I can almost eat you u-" Kushina squeals before she was interrupted by the door opening.
Both look at the nurse who enters the room with a tray of food. She brings out a table and places the food there before walking out. The nurse with the wooden leg enters soon after and gives Kushina an apologetic look.
"Hello," she says, "visiting hours are over."
"Ah, I see," Kushina sighs, standing up, "time really flies, doesn't it?"
"I agree," the nurse laughs.
While putting up the chair, Kushina glances at the food Ayumu is eating and decides that- while it is nutritious, it looks dry, cold, and bland. Ayumu doesn't seem bothered by it though, and at this, Kushina wishes that he complained more.
"When is he going to be discharged?" Kushina asks after a moment of thinking.
The nurse smiles, "Tomorrow miss. Though, it may take a while because of the procedures we need to make since we normally wouldn't discharge patients like him this early."
"Oh?" Kushina blinks in surprise." "Why is that?"
The nurse shifts uncomfortably, "I cannot tell you that." She turns and leaves.
"I see," Kushina hums. She ruffles Ayumu's head, smiling. "I'll pick you up tomorrow okay?"
Ayumu nods his head, "Mn!" then he watches Kushina's leaving figure feeling lonely once again.
.
.
.
((TW! There are violence, gore, and horror elements! If you do not like that, please skip to the ***))
Blood dripped down onto his face. The heavy smell of smoke and iron permeated the air, but it was all too familiar.
Ayumu looks at where the droplet came from and gasped, eyes wide. In front of him was a silver-haired man with a scar on his left eye. His chest was wide open and burnt while he is being held up by a long spear that is impaled into his neck. His left eye is gouged out and shoved into his broken mouth where there is also remnants of ripped fabric.
Ayumu covers his mouth, wanting to vomit. He turns and runs, but he could not get away from the silver-haired man that was left to become a scarecrow. Shaking and out of breath, Ayumu falls to his knees, his hands cupping the sides of his head. He wanted to scream, he wanted to cry.
"Why didn't you surrender?" A hoarse voice asks.
Ayumu looks around, then looks at the silver-haired man, to find that no one was there. He quickly stands up and runs, lungs burning and legs feeling numb.
A hand grabs his shoulders and forces him to look at the man who is now staring at him with a wide, empty eye.
He yells out in a screech that sounds like hundreds of other people in one voice: "Why did you trust him, Ṅ̴̡̮̯̱̤͛̾̐̅̋̾͐̚͜ͅă̷̡̛͚̼͔̩̱͉̥̤̩̲̠̹̐̿̔̔̇̈́͛̚̕͝r̵͉̪̰͓͋͐́̆̆͆̀̓̕͝͝ų̷̨̜͔̺̼̣͍̪̳̪̹͖̼̄̈t̶̡̨̛̪̤̙̲͍̀͗̇̅̏ͅǫ̵̪̲̩͇̹͚͚̙̲̊̍̇͊͗̽̋͠?!"
Ayumu sits up gasping hard. The image of that silver-haired person and the stench of the air was still fresh in his mind. He had no idea who this person was or why everything in the dream felt so real. His hands were trembling and he could not let go of the covers. He wanted to cry for this person so much, but he had no idea if it was for sorrow or for fear.
He looks out the window, still dark with bright stars littered across the sky like perfectly painted diamonds. The redhead opens the window and breathes in the air. Although it was cold, it still felt a lot better than what he felt in the dream.
After a while, he closes the window and crawls to bed, hugging his knees tight to his chest as soon as he got under the covers. He doesn't want to sleep for fear of another night's terror, and at that, he desperately wished for morning to come soon.