A/N: I'm going to post the next chapter tomorrow, and then this will be caught up to the ao3 version. After that, y'all will be subjected to the bullshit that is my updating schedule.
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Kushina comes to watch her, and doesn't bother asking Shiori where she wants to go. The older girl just scoops her up, marches to the wall, and plops Shiori several feet in front of it. She doesn't move out of sheer exhaustion. Her tiny underused muscles hurt from the last attempt, and she doesn't want to go for round two.
Kushina just smiles when she realizes Shiori is staying put, and sits next to her, happy to tell her all about her day. Her older cousin weaves grand, meandering tales of pranks and training with their other cousins. She talks about going to see the granny who runs her favorite ramen stall, and the uncle who teaches her seals that she'll use for her next prank, and how pretty the other seals across Uzushio are.
"When you get strong enough, we can go see those ones too, okay? But first you gotta show me you can handle it."
(It's always a When with Kushina, never an If. Like the girl has perfect faith in her.
It's nice, in a way Shiori doesn't want to acknowledge, to have someone believe in her.)
-:-
"You know, I'm pretty sure you can understand me. Can't you, Mochi?" Kushina says the next day, sitting next to her in their spot before the wall. Shiori doesn't give her cousin any indication that she heard, but the redhead just grins at her.
(It's fox-like, all sly and clever angles. Shiori wonders at the universe's fucked up sense of humor for making her trickster of a cousin the future jailor to a kistune.)
"Once you touch the wall, I'm gonna get you talkin', dattebane!"
Shiori can't stop herself from rolling her eyes. Kushina grins, wild and bright and feral, and Shiori knows that her cousin could rule the world with that smile if she felt like it.
-:-
On the fourth day, an older man with a severe frown and brown hair is at their spot. Kushina looks delighted for a moment, but then stumbles, arms tightening around Shiori. Feet planted where she stands, Kushina puts on a slightly stilted smile.
"Hi, Grandpa! Whatcha doing, dattebane?"
Grandpa, huh? Distantly, Shiori wonders if it's the same one who wanted to drown Shiori for being born wrong. Given the look on his face and Kushina's reaction, she'd bet on it.
(She glares at him. What kind of asshole wants to drown a baby?
She's not really a baby though, is she?)
The man smiles at Kushina, though his blue eyes are still sharp as he looks at Shiori. Calculating, like they're measuring any scrap of worth little broken Shiori has. Abruptly, Shiori remembers that she's been dropped into a world of mass murderers and military dictatorships, and she kind of feels like throwing in the towel.
Instead, Shiori glares at him harder.
She is nothing if not spiteful, and this asshole made her new mom cry. Fuck him and the high horse he rode in on.
"Maa, I was just wondering what you girls were getting up to these days. Figured I might as well see for myself."
Kushina smiles, relaxing slightly, but still keeping her body ready to run. To protect Shiori, even if it's from someone she obviously respects and cares about.
(Shiori thinks she might love the girl for that; just a little bit.)
"Mochi here likes the wards. 'm tryna get her to walk to them. Or, well, crawl, I guess."
"Oh?" the man says with patronizing interest. "And has that been working?"
"Yep!" Kushina says, like a lying liar who lies. Shiori looks back at her cousin, trying to ask via deadpan alone if she's being serious. One failed attempt to touch the wall four days ago does not count as "working." Looks like dear old gramps is calling bullshit too.
"Well, do you girls mind if I watch today? I'd love to see how far our Shiori-chan has come." Yep, totally calling Kushina's bluff.
Might just have worked too, if Shiori wasn't a being that lived to piss off others.
Kushina, trying to come up with a good excuse, nearly drops Shiori as she wiggles to be set down. Both of the elder Uzumaki look surprised, but Kushina grins with renewed confidence.
"Sure, Grandpa! Just watch, Mochi is totally gonna make it to the wall today, dattebane!"
-:-
Shiori does not, in fact, make it to the wall that day. She does make it more than a foot though, which is leagues better than her first attempt. Kushina, predictably, looks like she wants to scream Shiori's small success from the rooftops.
Their grandfather looks far less impressed, but he does look considering.
(Shiori stares him down, then flips him off with uncoordinated fingers.
He grins at her with all his teeth.)
-:-
Kushina doesn't scream Shiori's progress from the rooftops. She does, however, inform Shiori's parents, and her own mother, and their uncle.
Their uncle, the Uzukage.
Which is how Shiori finds herself at her spot away from the wall, with a small audience consisting of Kushina, her parents, her grandfather, her aunt, and her uncle the motherfucking military dictator of their island nation.
(She'd probably be freaking out more if he wasn't dressed in the silliest fucking robes ever. Whoever designed the kage uniform needs to be fired. That thing demands zero respect.)
Shiori sits against Kushina's legs, glowering at the assembled troop of Uzumaki. She's jostled when Kushina crouches down to her level, smiling like sunshine.
"Don't be scared, okay Mochi? We're all rooting for you, dattebane!" she says in the softest voice Shiori has ever heard on her cousin.
She says it with such warmth, such quiet sincerity, that Shiori has to fight back tears. She says it like she couldn't possibly be prouder of Shiori, like she has full faith that Shiori could fly if she chose to.
(And it's hard not to be scared. Just a little bit.
Because Shiori has never been good at living up to expectations, always too exhausted by existing to put in effort towards anything she doesn't have a 100% guarantee of doing well.
But Kushina is smiling like Shiori is the center of the universe, and her parents look quietly hopeful, and the others look like they aren't expecting anything out of her.)
Shiori takes a deep breath, turning towards the white wall and its bold ink.
They still feel like everything good and right in the world, and Shiori still wants to trace those lines to see if they're actually as warm as she imagines them to be.
Shiori puts her tiny toddler arms in front of her and starts dragging herself to the wall.
And behind her, she can hear a quiet huh from her uncle the Uzukage.
And behind her, she can hear a quiet intake of air from her aunt.
And behind her, she can hear the calculating gleam in her grandfather's eye.
And behind her, she can hear what sounds like a stifled sob from her parents.
And behind her, as she crawls ever closer to the wall, she hears Kushina cheering her on like this is the goddamn Olympics and Shiori's about to take home the gold.
Shiori drags herself, inch by inch, towards the promise of something Better.
(She still doesn't touch the fucking wall.
Kushina is proud of her anyways.)
-:-
Uzumaki Nanami is spinning Shiori around, laughing proudly as she cries.
Uzumaki Kenshi is grinning like nothing short of the apocalypse could kill his smile.
Uzumaki Kushina is whooping and hollering, "Didja see that?! My Mochi is amazing!"
(Shiori decides it might be okay if she loves them, just a little bit.
Shiori decides that for them, she can bring herself to try, just a little bit.)
Uzumaki Shiori, who was born dead, who was born twice, decides to live.
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A/N: Review to make the gremlin author happy.
