Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto
This chapter was edited by Illuminated.
Chapter 02: The Red hot Habanero (03.10.36 AFoK)
When we exited the Hokage tower, Mito addressed me, breaking the silence that was prevalent during our descent from it.
"Don't worry. He will come around, eventually," Mito tried to assure me.
"That's not what I'm worr ..." I was saying when my stomach growled quite loudly. I paused in a moment of stupor, and then Mito started to giggle into the wrist of her Kimono sleeve.
She then leaned into me and whispered in my ear, "You really are your mother's child."
Out loud, she said, "Let us go fetch Kushi-chan from the academy - at the snail's pace I am restricted to nowadays, we will be just in time for it to end, and we can go eat something, together. How does Ramen sound?"
`How did she know?´ I inwardly wondered.
She just shook her head at my involuntary reaction.
"Uzumaki, so easy..."
Contrary to her earlier complaint, I found she was easily able to match the average speed of the people walking in the streets, and I really came to enjoy the atmosphere the people around us gave of. The easy-going and happy attitude which was prevalent took care of getting me to relax a little, and for once I regretted having lost my emphatic ability along with Kurama. It would do wonders for my mental health to feel other than despair, hate, and anger from the people in my surroundings.
"It wasn't my heritage that drew you to investigate me, right?" I ventured.
Out of the corner of her eye, I could see her grimace. "No, it was not your heritage," she answered in confirmation of my suspicion.
"That's why you called me young in appearance back in the Hokage office." Because by any other metric, I was anything but. The extensive use of Shadow Clones had me already accumulate the experience of several lifetimes.
"This power is an incredible burden, especially with not being able to stop yourself from experiencing it," she mused. "I can only imagine what it must feel like to touch upon the last emotions of somebody who you are about to kill, to feel their..."
"...Anger, despair, hate that you know for certain is directed at you." I listed, to continue her thought.
She just nodded along.
"It's something you get used to, something you can blank out. If you had to kill them, then one way or another, they deserved their fate, this is what I tell myself, at least. After all, I see myself as a good person. So if they didn't deserve it, I wouldn't have killed them. It's as simple as that." I chuckled self consciously.
"I'm probably just lying to myself," I mused. "I mean, who thinks of himself as the bad guy? Even the most despicable persons I killed didn't see themselves as the villain. They somehow found ways to justify their crimes. `It had to be done. If not me, then someone else or for science´ ... those were just the most prominent excuses I came across, and I'm sure somewhere along the line, I've justified killing someone using the same excuse."
She used us walking arm in arm to give me a reassuring squeeze and took my hand in hers.
"At first, when you notice doing it, you call yourself out on it. Force yourself to be better, to uphold a code. Once you're past a certain point, you just stop caring. It's a slippery slope, one I doubt someone in our profession can ultimately escape, but you might be able to stretch the time until you succumb to it," I ruminated. "The lucky ones end up dead themselves before it can become an issue; however, it's an undeniable truth no one can escape from: by killing people, you're slowly killing yourself bit by bit. But that's something we've to learn to accept in this profession."
My regrets about the empathic ability began to surface. "The worst part of it all, what you never can shake off, is feeling the disappointment from your friends when you were just a tick too late to save their lives. It's never a prominent feeling. It's overshadowed by the regret at dying, by the love they feel for people close to them when they remember the good times they shared with them, just before their eyes close for the last time. Except, lingering under all that beneath the surface, you can feel it, the silent accusation that it was your fault." An involuntarily shudder at remembering the feeling ran throughout my body and made me pause for an instant.
In response, Mito just squeezed a little tighter telling me that I wasn't alone. "It mocks you, your weakness at allowing it to happen, you're unwillingly confronted with your worthlessness, that your best just wasn't good enough. Sensing it once you can manage to endure, to suppress it, but the problem is that it starts to pile on. The next time you sense this particular feeling when a friend you grew up with is bleeding out in your arms, you're hit with the memory of every single instance you came across this particular feeling at the same time. It starts as a splash of water, then turns into a raging tsunami trying to crush you under its weight and drag you down into an inescapable abyss."
Listening to me, she suddenly just stopped and pulled me into a hug. I didn't know how long we stood there embracing each other, but when she released me from her arms, I had tears in my eyes. I felt like the weight of the world I was carrying on my shoulders just got lighter by several orders of magnitude.
"Thank you, I didn't know how much I needed that," I admitted. There was a lot left unspoken. Especially the fact that going through those emotions I essentially forced them unto her with no way out. Standing this close to me and indirect contact even, she must have experienced them with the same strength as if they were her own.
"Anytime, Anytime, my boy."
"Pretty pathetic, huh, from the boy who set out to safe us all to have a mental breakdown in the middle of the street," I lamented.
"Quite to the contrary, I have yet to meet someone with a stronger mind, and anybody else, I can ensure you, would have shattered into a thousand pieces with just a tiny fraction of what you had to contend with. Do not waver in your belief in yourself," Mito declared. "If you think you can no longer trust your judgment, trust mine, for I am believing in you Uzumaki Naruto, to do the right thing, to do those things that are necessary without crossing the line."
"You don't..."
"Know you, know what you are talking about? Please, I was not always as ancient as I am now, and there were numerous battles I followed my dumb husband into, and you of all should know with the curse that we shared, how easy it is to get to know someone better than oneself by utilizing it."
I swallowed hard at her rightful, reprimand. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be. One of the self-imposed tasks of us fossils is teaching the young ones how to behave." She hooked her arm with mine again, and we resumed our walk. I could hear her complaining under her breath, "If it would be just as easy with everyone ..."
We reached the gates of the academy shortly after. The school must have just ended because most of the young pre-genin hopefuls were standing around in the courtyard, either greeting their parent come to fetch them or huddled together in groups animatedly talking to each other. There were a few exceptions, with some of the children already leaving the premises on their way home. Some of those walking alone had a longing in their eyes when they saw one of the other kids in the embrace of their parents, these most likely were orphans. I could sympathize with them; no kid should grow up without their parents. Unfortunately, it was one of the bitter realities of the Shinobi world that, at some point, you run into someone better and die for it. Still, from what I could remember from the first few years of my life, living in an orphanage, those children deserved better than what little they got, especially if their parents gave their lives in the service of Konoha.
Knowing that Danzō had recruited most of his shinobi from there when he couldn't blackmail a clan to give up one of their own made me wonder if the bad living conditions they suffered might have been by design. To allow him to pressure the children and caretakers alike to accept his `generosity´. After I have taken him out this time around, I would have to look into that. Perhaps I could get my hand on funds to alleviate the worst of what they had to endure.
My eyes had no problem making out the only redhead in the crowd of humans scurrying around, not that I would have needed them to find her. Sensing the energies her body produced, the chakra at her disposal, the quantity, and especially the quality was something else. It was as expected of an Uzumaki slated to become a Jinchūriki.
She, on the other hand, had problems locating us due to her short stature. It was no surprise, with her being half a head shorter than most of the children in her vicinity. The adults mixed within the crowd only exacerbated the problem. So that even while standing on her toes, she had trouble looking past them.
What immediately stood out to me as I watched her despite standing in the middle of a crowd was that she looked lost and alone. No other child took an interest in her - at most, they avoided her.
Kushina wore a sleeveless yellow kimono-style blouse held closed by a green Obi over a mesh shirt with a pair of dark blue shorts. Her hair was like I remembered it, Uzumaki red, long enough to reach her waist with two shoulder-length strands framing both sides of her face with a black clip in it which parted it to the left.
Mito lifted her cane in the air and signaled Kushina. The next time Kushina's searching eyes fell upon the general area we waited in, her eyes widened at recognizing Mito. And without missing a beat, she ran through the crowd dancing around all the people degraded to mere obstacles in her way, only to crash at full speed into the waiting arms of a crouching Mito.
"Uff, careful, young lady. One of these days, your exuberant enthusiasm will be the death of me," Mito grouched to the little whirlwind while they separated from each other.
"Nope," said a smiling Kushina while popping the p. "Not gonna happen, I won't allow you to Oba-san, you're gonna live forever."
"I would like to share in your belief, but that is not how life works. But enough of such gloomy thoughts. There's someone I would like you to meet, "With a soft touch on her shoulder, she turned Kushina my way. "This is Naruto. He is an Uzumaki just like us."
She grimaced, turned to Mito, and asked, "are you going senile Oba-san? There's no way he is an Uzumaki with that piss-blond hair," before the surprised Mito had any time to respond, her head was already facing my way again.
"You better apologize for tricking my Oba-san and then crawl back into the hole you came from and hope we never meet again, or I'm gonna punch the living shit out of you, whiskers," she threatened, and I could swear her hair started lifting itself up in the air in a menacing manner.
Inwardly, I was amused by how she tried to defend her family. Outwardly, I feigned a fearful gulp. If she was anything like my younger self, laughing at her while she threatened me would sour any and all future interactions I might have with her. After all, we Uzumaki are known to hold a grudge. In addition, I really saw no need to worsen the first impression she might have gotten of me by mocking her. She seemed to have scarcely any positive inter-person relationships as it was.
The expression she wore amidst the crowd was of someone who desperately needed a friend above all else. I would know I was greeted by the same face for many years when I looked into a mirror.
Mito placed a hand on Kushinas shoulder to forestall her charging and attacking me. "Kushi-chan, calm down. What did I tell you about attacking strangers for no reason."
"Not to," she more asked than actually stated. "But, this guy can't be an Uzumaki! He has blonde hair," she adamantly argued.
"While you are right, the typical Uzumaki indeed has red hair," Mito conceded and inspired a smug look on Kushina's face at being affirmed in her statement "not all necessarily possess it. There are cases where one parent of a child did not have our red hair, resulting in one of their children not having it either. It is a rare occurrence. Nonetheless possible. Just take your aunt Tsunade, for example, she is my granddaughter but also does not share the color of my hair, and neither did her mother."
It didn't seem to have fully convinced her, because she narrowed her eyes at me, which I interpreted as a silent message `I accept it, for now, but, I'm watching you´.
I sighed and reminisced about the numerous times I have been told by people that I was difficult as a kid; preposterous.
Seeing Kushina expression, Mito couldn't hold in her amusement and hid her giggled behind her hand only to suggest, "Let us go. You can resolve your differences over something to eat."
"Ramen?" Kushina hopefully asked.
"Only if you promise to be nice to Naruto. He came all this way to visit his Uzumaki kin living in Konoha and does not deserve to be treated this way. Since he will be living with us from today onwards, you better start to get along with each other." The Uzumaki Matriarch warned.
That revelation had Kushina speechless. Mito then bent down and whispered into Kushina's ears. "If you show yourself from your best behavior, he might even stick around, and you might be able to persuade him to become your onii-san."
This was by no means enough to prevent somebody, with senses as sharp as mine, from hearing every word.
Not a moment later, Mito's teasing had a visible effect on Kushina as her cheeks went deep red. Combined with her round chubby face and the red hair, I could understand why she was duped, Tomato in the academy.
"So?" Mito asked Kushina with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes, I promise." She agreed reluctantly.
"Good, my little whirlpool," she said while ruffling her hair. "Let us go."
We walked a few dozen meters and left the crowd behind us, with Kushina practically dragging Mito behind her to reach the Ramen stall faster.
"Where did you get those scratches on your cheek?" I asked.
She released Mito's hand from her grip and mumbled, "don't wanna talk about it." She turned away from us and increased her pace and thereby distance between us in the process.
I tried to say something, but seeing Mito shaking her head dissuaded me from that notion.
Kushina kept walking a few steps ahead of us for the rest of the way. Her earlier good mood vanished without a trace. Her subdued behavior only changed when the Ichiraku Ramen bar came into view.
I shared her enthusiasm and barely managed to stop myself from running there myself, as it had been far too long since I last tasted the food of the Gods prepared by one of his chosen.
When we came closer, with Kushina already sitting on a stool, my eyes confirmed that yes, it was Teuchi, an incredible young Teuchi, but a Teuchi nonetheless. He was only a few years older than me if I had to guess. For a single moment, I wondered where Ayame was before my mind caught up with me, and I had to remind myself that she wasn't even born yet.
Mito and I reached the stools at the exact moment, Teuchi placed the first bowl of steaming hot ramen in front of the Kushina. If there was ever any doubt about Kushina being my mother, seeing her making the ramen disappear in moments would have cleared those with absolute finality for anyone who has ever seen me eat ramen. I seated myself on a stool on Kushina's left, and Mito took place to her right.
"Mito-sama, it's always a pleasure, especially if you bring my best customer along. The usual?" Teuchi greeted her with barely contained enthusiasm.
"Yes, please, one bowl of Miso Ramen."
"Coming right up," he said to her, before turning to me. "What can I bring you, esteemed customer?"
"Naruto, my name is Naruto," I told him.
"Naruto then -" he affirmed.
I took a moment to study the menu. For the most part, to satisfy my curiosity whether it changed over the years or not. It didn't, so that left me with a taste test to see if Teuchi was able to refine his art over the years. "Let's start off with bowls of Miso, vegetable, and pork Ramen."
There was a hard to overlook glint in his eyes, "I see, another ramen lover," he stated and started to prepare my order.
"If you continue to bring such customers to my doorstep, I will be able to buy you out in no time Mito-sama." he joked.
"Too true, Teuchi-san perhaps I should set them both on a Ramen-free diet," she responded smirking.
The last word wasn't even out of her mouth when Kushina, attempted to argue against it. Instead, she inhaled the noodles in her mouth and had a coughing fit. This naturally wasn't nearly enough to prevent her from glaring at Mito while she was trying not to suffocate. On more than one occasion, she wasted the breath she managed to get into her lungs with great difficulty on berating Mito. Which only resulted in another coughing fit immediately after.
While I shared her sentiment, I really thought she should evaluate her priorities. But who am I kidding? Bleeding out wouldn't have stopped my younger self from doing exactly the same.
"You okay?" I asked her after she finally recovered.
"Yeah," she said with tear-filled eyes, and she was about to add something, but stopped herself and allowed a smirk to show on her face that vanished as fast as it appeared, replaced by puppy dog eyes.
"Naru-nii-san, you've to help your imouto-chan. You can't allow Mito-oba-san to take away my ramen. I need my ramen. It's the only food possessing the necessary nutrients to power a growing Uzumaki kunoichi. Please, you've to help me. There's no way I can survive on rice, nor is it able to bring out the true Uzumaki greatness."
She really seemed desperate, and I was always weak to crying girls, even when I should have known better to allow them to sucker me into making promises. "Sure, I'm on your side. I won't allow your Obaa-san to withhold your ramen. An Uzumaki should never be separated from the food of the gods, after all."
The words barely left my mouth when I was suddenly tackled by her, which nearly resulted in us falling from our stools, with her arms entwined around my mid-section. She declared, "You're the best, onii-chan."
I lifted my head from looking at the redhead's face buried in my chest to look at a smiling Mito, who silently mouthed, "Too easy"
For a moment, I contemplated being angry at her for manipulating us, especially Kushina, in such a way but thought better of it given she helped me gain her acceptance.
I mouthed my thanks in response. It took Teuchi placing Kushina's second bowl on the counter to get her to release me. The bowls for Mito and myself followed not a second later.
I took some chopsticks and savored the scent, the texture, the taste of my first bite; oh my god, was it good to be home, I missed you Ichiraku-ramen. In the blink of an eye, I emptied it to the last drop. As I placed the bowl back on the counter after drinking the broth, a wide-eyed Kushina was staring at me, so I gave her a questioning look.
"You're fast, but no one can eat ramen faster than me."
She proudly declared.
"Care to put your money where your mouth is?" I challenged.
She smirked hit the counter with her open hand and exclaimed. "Keep it coming," to Teuchi-san, "someone has to be put in his place."
At the other end, Mito shook her head smirking, "Oh my, Oh my..."
Teuchi relentlessly presented us with bowl after bowl. It took ten servings until Kushina finally admitted defeat. I had to admit she came close after finishing the eleventh bowl I felt sated myself with some effort I could have managed one more at most. It seemed like years without ramen reduced the number of bowls I could eat in one sitting. It was a shortcoming I would have to overcome to get back to my old level in order to avoid being beaten by a squirt.
Mito paid for us. "Thank you, that's too generous," Teuchi said as he bowed to her.
"I wish you a good day, Teuchi." Mito rose from the stool and was about to walk away, when she noticed Kushina slumped down on her stool, her head placed on the counter, groaning and looking sick. "Come on Kushi-chan, time to go."
"I can't. My tummy hurts, and moving hurts even more," Kushina whined.
"That's what you get for challenging the best." I quipped
"Pfft, next time I will beat you," she declared, only to shrink back on herself with pain contorted face holding her tummy again.
"In your dreams, perhaps you might, out here, in reality, no way, not in a hundred years," I scoffed.
"Well, in that case, you leave us with no other choice than to leave you behind," Mito remarked. "That might teach you to eat with deliberation and not to stuff yourself beyond the point that you can walk young lady."
"Please, can't you just carry me?" she begged.
"Kushi-chan, I am an old woman. I am lucky I can manage to reach my destination on foot without having to rely on others. How do you think I could manage to carry you?" Mito stressed, "and in the case you have not noticed, it has been quite some time since you were a baby."
For a few seconds, they just stared at each other in a battle of wills, until Mito relented with a sigh and said, "perhaps your onii-chan might be willing to carry you."
Kushina shyly looked away, refraining from commenting. Instead of waiting for her to come to a decision. I walked up to her stool and knelt right next to her. "Come on Kushina-chan. I'm gonna carry you home." I offered.
"Don't wanna." she protested.
"Well, it's either that or having to stay here waiting for the food in your tummy to be digested. Your call." I said. Reluctantly she wrapped her arms around my shoulder and allowed me to give her a piggyback ride.
Mito, watching this closely, couldn't contain her mirth. Even Teuchi had trouble keeping his amusement to himself - this got both of them a glare from Kushina, who, to her displeasure, found that she was unable to get them to stop.
To not get on her bad side, too, I started walking. If I remembered right from the old plans of Konoha that predated the Kyūbi attack, the Uzumaki compound was located next to the Senju compound, and since Mito didn't see it necessary to correct my direction, I probably was right in my assumption.
The trek back to the compound was a silent affair, with Kushina sulking on my back. The only stir she made was when she saw Academy kids in our vicinity. Her grip got tighter, her legs around my hip contracted, and she more than once attempted to look away to hide her face or bury her head in my neck.
"Something wrong Kushina-chan? We can take a break if you're uncomfortable," I wondered about her peculiar behavior.
"No, everything's just fine," she hissed.
"Is it? Then why are you gripping me harder at irregular intervals - you aren't in pain or something, right?" I asked, "If so, I can take a look at you."
"Don't! Keep walking!" she ordered.
"Okay," I relented.
"She finds it embarrassing to be seen by kids from the academy while getting a piggyback ride," Mito explained.
"Ohh," I faked understanding. "There's no reason to be embarrassed about that. On the contrary, think of it as a service provided to you. Nowadays, only princesses and children below a certain age get to enjoy being carried around."
"I'm no princess!" she hissed.
"Well, are you sure about that?" I asked. "If I'm not mistaken, your father was the son of Uzushiogakure's leader, a position comparable to a Daiymo, which makes you a princess. You know what, I think I'm gonna call you that from now on."
"I'm no damn princess – I'm gonna be a Kunoichi, the best there is, and then I'm gonna become Hokage!" she animatedly declared.
"Hokage, hmm you set your goals high. I like it, and I'm sure you will be able to fulfill your dream just fine."
"You really think so? You aren't making fun of me?" She doubted my words.
"No, of course not. I'd never dare lie to a beautiful girl like you." I remarked.
"Unhand me now!" she suddenly raged while at the same time she was trying to wiggle her feet free. Surprised at her reaction, I set her down.
"What's wrong? Did I say something wrong?" I asked, baffled, my eyes darting between Mito and the nearly-crying Kushina as I kneeled on the ground.
"You jackass," she bellowed. "Don't think I don't know when I'm being made fun of."
"What are you talking about? I meant every word I said," I stated.
"Liar!" She screamed and charged me; her first right punch was easily avoided by moving first my head, then my body out of the way. Because of her miss, she stumbled and momentarily lost her balance and interrupted what she intended as a flurry of blows raining down on me until she regained her balance. Her second attack consisted of a right cross aimed at my chin, which in my kneeling position was exactly at the correct height for her to reach without overextending herself. Given her stance, it was clear she intended to follow it up with another punch.
Still confused about what I did wrong that prompted such an attack and concerned about her exerting herself like that when she couldn't walk a few moments ago, I decided to end this fast.
I leaned forward directly into her, which resulted in her punch sailing through the air behind my head. I then embraced her tight to my torso and stood up so that her feet left the ground, hanging uselessly in the air. My left hand was wound around her torso under her shoulders and my right hand around her thighs to take away her ability to kick me somewhere no man wants to be kicked.
Kushina struggled to the best of her abilities. But without any real leverage, she was unable to put any strength in her attacks. They hailed down on me, delivered via small fist, onto my back. Her onslaught continued for far longer than it should have taken her to notice its futility.
During all of this, I tried to soothe her somehow, which only yielded results when her anger slowly subsided. With every punch she threw, she turned from an angry, all-devouring maelstrom into a sobbing mess. "You're ... just ... like ... all ... the ... others. Making ... fun ... of ... me. I'm ... not ... beautiful ... everybody ... says ... so, I'm ... just ... the ... tomato."
I knew she was bullied. She had told me herself back in my time, but I never thought it was that bad. She seemed so strong, and the way she described it, how she pummeled everybody who called her that, I just somehow assumed she was above it. But I should have recognized nobody attacks someone else with no reason over things they don't care about. I should have noticed the bravado in it, how she tried to hide the hurt, remembering it must have caused her.
Never again, now that I was here, nobody was going to hurt her again. I would make sure of it. "I'd never make fun of you, and who says you're not beautiful? They clearly don't know what they are talking about. How could there be anyone, who doesn't find your crimson red hair beautiful, who isn't enticed by your laugh, or drawn to your wilfulness."
Stumped by my truthful response, her cheeks reddened, and she tried to wipe off her tears. "You're not lying to me, onii-chan. You truly think my hair is beautiful?" She asked with tear-filled eyes.
"Yes, and so are you. Don't let anybody tell you differently. They are just jealous that they don't have such nice and beautiful hair like you."
The words barely left my mouth when all the left my lungs by how hard she hugged me.
"You're the best, onii-chan."
"Not for much longer if you continue to strangle me," I pressed out. She loosened her grip with a tint of embarrassment at her enthusiasm. "And Of course, I'm the best. I need to be in order to be called onii-chan by the future Hokage, don't I, Hime?" I said playfully.
Her response only consisted of a "Hmm, true." She then snuggled into me.
A cursory glance of my surroundings had me notice that all the people around us stopped what they were doing to watch us. Some were blatantly staring, while others were more subtly. Nonetheless, to my trained eyes, it was clear what they were doing. In any event, I didn't expect to be the talk of the village quite this fast. It wasn't that I counted on my anonymity to last, just that in case it did - some of the things would have been easier.
I just hoped that there wouldn't be any fallout from this for Kushina; her academy life seemed hard enough already. Otherwise, I might be forced to have some serious conversations with a few of her teachers that might involve some threats to their continued well-being.
Mito, on the other hand, was standing there with a huge grin plastered on her face, "You did not tell me you were a heartbreaker," she smugly stated.
I nearly fell over my own feet at that comment and dreadfully realized what I had just done. Didn't Mom tell she fell in love with Dad when he complimented her hair, and when I did the same, she said I was the second person to do that, and she loved both of them? Shit, did I just change the events in such a fashion, that they might never get together? I decided to ignore this possibility for now, if only for my mental well-being.
"Something wrong?" She asked, amused. "You look like you have seen a ghost."
"Please, don't mention ghosts around me," I told her.
"Oh, is there someone frightened of such things?" She said knowingly at my grimaced face.
"Do not worry, I approve." I couldn't help myself and glare daggers at the back of Mito. She walked another few meters feigning not to notice me falling back.
"Come, let us get your Hime into a bed," she teased, and I didn't get flustered at her insinuation, nope, not at all. I was even preparing myself to be on the receiving end of Kushina's anger, but a short glance showed that she was sleeping like a newborn in my arms. The food, physical, and mostly emotional outburst must have been enough to exhaust her to such a degree that she was out like a light the moment she could snuggle onto something.
Mito was right on one thing Kushina had to be placed in a bed, which is why I continued to follow her and tried my best to ignore her giggling. I didn't want to know what scheme she was cooking up in her mind. I just hoped it didn't involve me in some fashion.
It took us another few minutes to leave the developed center of the village until we reached the surrounding forest, still well within the outer walls. We stopped at a small stone gate embedded into a stone wall that extended for quite a stretch left and right of it. The occasional Uzumaki Spiral carved into the stone left no doubt of this being the Uzumaki compound.
It was great to finally get to see it with my own eyes. Since the Kyūbi rampage destroyed it entirely - and with no adult Uzumaki remaining in the village, no one had seen a need to restore it to its former glory.
I couldn't fault them for it. There were others more pressing matters to attend to in the aftermath of the attack. Still, I always regretted only being able to see what it looked like from the few pictures that Tsunade still had lying around.
Mito turned to me and requested, "Give me your hand." I put out my hand, careful not to wake Kushina, and with a practiced motion, Mito removed a Senbon Needle from her hair and pecked my index finger.
"Aua," I exclaimed.
"You baby," she taunted. "Wait here a moment." She then laid her hand on the handle of the gate, and it opened for her. Immediately after she stepped through, the gate closed behind right behind her.
I could make an educated guess, for what she needed my blood, which is why I allowed her the extraction in the first place. After witnessing Hidan and his particular set of skills, I had become rather paranoid about my bodily fluids. In other words, I went to great lengths drawing more than one seal on my body capable of rendering anything leaving its confines inert unless I consciously choose otherwise.
It was a necessary precaution, after all; Hidan was an idiot - the possibilities his ability opened up for an assassin were unbelievable, killing someone half the world away by only getting a hand on some of their blood. He could have killed half of Konoha in an afternoon if someone would have provided him with the blood samples stored in the hospital, and instead, he used it to torture people standing in front of him for his twisted god.
Mito returned a short time later. "You are now allowed to enter the confines of the compound," she said.
I thanked her, and she escorted me along a narrow paved path through a small forest, which cleared out after a few hundred meters on a small hill with an unobstructed view of an enormous villa in the center of an immense garden. I could identify every kind of vegetable, fruit, and herb imaginable growing in it; there even was a small section designated for flowers. It was a truly magnificent view, like a piece of paradise.
The villa wasn't any less noteworthy; it was a three-story building built entirely out of stone, consisting of several wings surrounded by a wall. Behind the house, I could make out a small lake and couldn't keep myself from being impressed. This was idyllic, peaceful even.
It sure was a stark contrast to the small flat I called home and spent the majority of my life in. Mito lead me to the front entrance and opened the door for us. She took off her shoes and placed them in the allocated space. She then proceeded to do the same for the still sleeping Kushina held in my arms. I followed her example and followed her on the tatami mat floor.
"Kushina's room is on the second floor, the room to your right after ascending the stairs." She said, and I nodded to her in understanding "When you have laid her down, come back downstairs, so I can show you your room."
The little bit I saw from the inside of the villa turned out to be even more amazing than the already great exterior would let one assume. This house was a dream come true.
Kushina's room not so much; it had more resemblance with a nightmare. Having opened her room with my elbows, I thought of myself standing in the middle of a war zone; scrolls, scrawled on paper, dishes, and clothes were spread throughout the entire room. I was confident my six-year-old messy self was tidier than her, probably.
I skirted around the things lying on the floor that was not too dissimilar to evading traps and finally reached her big futon. With my left hand, I folded back her blanket and slowly put Kushina down, and tucked her in.
"Sleep tight," I whispered.
I turned around and was about to leave when I noticed my foot got tangled up in something. I lifted my foot and removed the offending piece of fabric from it. I was about to place it back on the ground when my mind caught up with my eyes and identified it as a female undergarment. Instantly I threw it away and left the room behind, as fast as possible while my mind went places. Outside, I rested, leaning on her door to get myself back under control; this wasn't what I expected to come across. When the shock receded, I deemed it safe to venture downstairs.
I knew my reaction wouldn't have escaped Mito, who seemed to be a sensor on par with myself, but sensing and seeing something is an entirely different matter. I wanted to preserve a little bit of my dignity and not lose it all on the first day.
I found Mito sitting at a chabudai, with a steaming tea-pot standing in the middle of it. A steaming cup was in front of her, and one more was on the opposite side of the table. The chabudai was placed next to a large translucent wall allowing for an excellent view outside. Showcasing the beauty of the lake and the vast backyard of the house. Clearly, responsible for this had to be the work of the seals painted on the bottom panel of each section of the wall - I wondered if the wall was translucent from the outside or if it only allowed for a one-way view.
Seeing Mito was silently waiting for me to sit down. I reined in my curiosity and walked to the shuqicheng and seated myself.
"Tea?" she inquired.
"Yes, please," I answered.
She took the tea-pot and filled my cup with a hot, aromatic green liquid. I wasn't great on tea. Despite that, I came across a huge variety of it because those I surrounded myself with enjoyed it a great deal. Despite all my experience with it, I couldn't place this one. It smelled different than any other tea I came across so far.
"It is my own blend, made from leaves only found on Uzushiogakure," she answered my unasked question.
I took the cup and took a sip, mostly out of politeness. Unexpectedly I liked how it tasted. To make sure I wasn't just imagining things, I took another larger sip. It only confirmed my initial impression, that yes, this stuff was good.
"It seems you like it; I never acquired the taste for the tea the mainlanders serve. It tastes too bland with a bitter undertone."
I was astounded by her comment. Those were precisely the words I used in the past to explain, why I didn't like to drink tea.
"As nice as it is to drink tea with you. Even more, now that you managed to convert me to drinking tea. Trust me, you, by far, weren't the first one that tried. I'm sure it isn't the reason why we're here," I noted accusingly.
"No, it is not. Why are you truly here?" She asked.
"I was afraid you'd ask me that. Can we not talk about it?" She gently shook her head at my pleading inquiry.
I took a deep breath. "Yeah, didn't think it would be that easy to avoid answering that particular question."
Instead of answering her, I unsealed the last headband I wore from one of the scrolls I had fastened on my back. I handed it over to her - written on it was just one word, `shinobi´. She gave it a good look wide-eyed comprehension dawned on her.
"That bad?" She asked, with a serious inflection in her tone.
"Worse, we came together, all the Shinobi forgetting all past grievances - of which there were many - and fought one enemy and his pawns, and we were losing badly." After trailing the word etched into the headband, she wordlessly returned it to me, and I placed it back where it came from.
We sat there for what felt like a very long time in complete silence while she digested the news.
"Kushina died, did she not? Long before her time." She suddenly said, breaking the silence. It was more a statement than a guess or a question.
"Yes, she died the day of my birth. Both my parents were attacked shortly after she brought me into this world... "
"Taking advantage of the weakened seal," she interjected. "My God, they died." I nodded. "That's why you were made Jinchūriki long before it was time to pass on the burden," she concluded.
"Yes, they were able to seal the Kyūbi inside me with their dying breath. I never got to meet them, and until I turned sixteen, I didn't even know their names." I told her.
"So, in the end, you and Kushina both had to pay the price for my mistake." she somberly said, dropping her gaze.
"I don't see it that way," I objected. "You couldn't have known. While true, the first few years of my life were hard, and I don't think of them fondly; they weren't all bad. They taught me many valuable lessons - the most important one being that family is everything. And if not for Kurama, I wouldn't be here today."
"Kurama?" she wondered.
"The Kyūbi's name - after some ups and downs at the beginning, we became friends, no far more than that brothers," I sighed. "I miss him dearly."
She clearly was surprised at hearing that admission.
"You gave me a lot to think about today, but one thing became clear:the Kyūbi can not be allowed to be sealed in another woman. The risk of a repeat of what you told me is just too great, and if I had not already decided to give..." she hesitated to use his name, "Kurama to you, this information would have made up my mind."
I always wondered why every Kyūbi jinchūriki that came before was female – Mito's case is easily explainable as she had sealed Kurama within her mid-battle. Consequently, it made the decision to use Kushina as the next host questionable, with the seal weakening while giving birth. I highly doubted that Konoha was keen on burdening themselves with that risk. Neither did I think the Uzumaki clan had no male children in their midst fulfilling the requirements of becoming a jinchūriki.
That meant either Mito or the Uzumaki clan pushed for her. I didn't see Mito doing that; with her descendants living here and being a citizen of Konoha herself, the Uzumaki clan, on the other hand, that was quite possible.
After all, difficult birthing conditions that could result in Konoha's extinction might dissuade them from trying to breed an Uzumakis for themselves to get their hands on the highly sought after Uzumaki blood. Such a plot would be far easier to implement with a male jinchūriki. Because it eliminated the risk of the Kyūbi escaping. Additionally, men are able to impregnate more than one woman at a time. They could get themselves a whole clan of descendants in the span of a single generation if enough women were to be provided.
That outcome would greatly diminish the worth of an alliancewith Uzushiogakure for Konoha and bolster its strength with all the Uzumaki blood contains.
So as the junior partner in this alliance, the smart thing to do was to make themselves irreplaceable. But it didn't stop the cravings if Danzō was anything to go by.
Still, with Mito's offspring as an example, Danzō knew that the Uzumaki properties diminished or got lost entirely for whatever reason in certain circumstances – after all, bloodlines had to be a dominant trait for there to exist clans possessing them – He was taking an awfully great risk since he couldn't know for sure that Kushina could produce children fulfilling the requirements as a container. He couldn't have known at this time what Orochimaru could do... and to my knowledge, Kakashi was the first non-Uchiha with a successful Sharingan transplant. Was I overlooking something?
"In exchange, you have to promise me something." Mito implored.
"Anything," there was not a moment of hesitation when I responded.
"When I am no longer around – promise me that you are going take care of Kushina... she is too young to live on her own, all alone. Tsuna-chan comes around all too rarely these days..." she noted with regret.
"I will. You have my word on that. Kushina will be taken care of. She is family, after all, and no one hurts the family." I vowed.
"Even having never met another Uzumaki, you are cast in the same mold as the best of us," she said.
"You mentioned Tsunade. Why aren't you living with them in the Senju compound? together with them and the rest of your family?" I asked.
My question elicited a pained expression on her face she lamented, "Oh I did – this whole compound was erected just for appearance's sake at the start and to house Uzushiogakure dignitaries when they are visiting Konoha, but after Tsunade's parents died... especially her mother my and Hashirama's only child... I could not bear being there any longer. Every item in our house only served to remind me about them... I felt like living in a house of the dead. It was suffocating and so very painful." I knew precisely what she was talking about. There was not a day that could go by when something reminded me of what I had lost.
"So one day, I just grabbed both Tsunade and Nawaki and moved here with them. We lived here until late last year; shortly before Kushina was expected to arrive Tsuna-chan, and Nawaki moved out. Tsuna-chan justified her action by saying she didn't want to impose on the hospitability of the next Uzumaki-Clan head."
That didn't sound like the Tsunade-Bachan I remembered, I thought to myself. "Of course, it was just an excuse. She knew why Kushi-chan was sent, here and to say she is of two minds about it is an understatement. Then again, she knows Kushi is kin, family even though distant, but her arrival will herald my death, the only other person she considers close kin aside from her little brother. She, in a certain sense, sees Kushina as the one ultimately responsible for my death. The one, taking away her grandmother from her."
She sighed, "You have to understand she suffered greatly during her childhood - she saw everybody around her die, her closest family just gone, starting with her grandfather. In her mind, she knows the truth, that if not for Kushina, someone else would be sent and that ultimately it is not Kushina's fault. But sometimes, it is difficult to have your mind prevail over your feelings. The sad thing in all of this is that Kushi-chan is the victim, wishing for nothing else than to have a sister in Tsunade. But she is not allowed to simply because Tsuna-chan is insisting on keeping her distance. Although they aren't that different from each other, and both could benefit from a closer relationship. If only to fill the hole in their hearts."
She paused for a moment. "Something that hopefully might be possible, with your help." as she gave me a melancholic smile.
Well, she was right, if I was to be the next Jinchūriki that would get Kushina out of the line of fire and instead would put me in it. Hmm, it wouldn't be the first time I had to change Tsunade's behavior for the better, so this might be for the best.
I drained the cup. "I will do my best; Tsunade-Bachan deserve nothing less," I said.
"I can not believe that she allowed you to call her that," she doubted my statement with a smile on her lips.
"To be honest, I didn't give her much choice in the matter," I said. As I reached for the necklace around my neck to show it to her.
"That explains a lot. But you better do not let anybody see you wearing it," she warned.
"Right, that would invite unnecessary scrutiny. I will seal it away before going to sleep, which reminds me, is there a room and a bed I can use? The journey left me exhausted," I confessed.
"Of course, the room at the end of that corridor is the one prepared for you. A fresh futon, blankets, and towels are already there. If you need anything else, do not hesitate to ask."
"That's plenty enough. I just need some shut-eye - the rest can wait for tomorrow. Good Night Uzumaki-sama." I bowed before here and took my leave.
I was surprised when I stepped into the room. It was huge and extensively furnished. I wondered about being in the wrong room until I saw the futon and the towels, which was enough that in my current state, I didn't care. I stripped most of my clothes and together with my necklace, sealed it up in one of my scrolls. I placed them all on a table and then laid down on the soft and warm futon, my tired eyes closed within moments.
Authors Note:
Since I was asked by theneed4beer in the reviews. (And since he has PM blocked)
Yes, I intend to pair them with each other. Since the Westermarck effect couldn't have taken hold of Naruto because Kushina died, and genetic induced problems might not occur in Naruto world as we know it. (The sample size isn't that big – but there are closely related clans in existence who try to keep their bloodline pure. The Hyuuga clan, for example – who practice inbreeding to a certain degree.) This means that the single non-social taboo regarding incest has no significance.
Given Naruto's bloodline wouldn't be a factor either way. So aside from Naruto knowing somewhere in his mind that Kushina in another future might become his mother, there is no reason why this shouldn't happen. All things considered, they are pretty much complete strangers, who don't have to fear genetic defects in their offspring.
Last Edited: 29.08.2021