Out of the Ashes

Chapter 10

Older

Returning to Konoha included Kakashi reaching the gates in about a day of nonstop running. We had only taken two breaks, once when I had to pee and once when he took a drink and a chakra pill. There was no immediate emergency, so I wasn't sure why he was running so hard. After all when the fight had been seven hours behind us I was able to relax. Nothing would be coming to get me in Konoha, that would be suicide for any missing nin and or bounty hunter.

When we reached the gate Kakashi showed our IDs to the guards without letting me down. It wasn't until I was settled in a general examination room in the hospital that he finally relaxed, allowing his shoulders to fall from their rigid position and leaning against the white wall. The door opened after a few moments and the doctor that had been with the Hokage after my surgery two years ago entered. He still felt like that gross old world medicine and I got a good look at him now.

His hair was a deep burgundy red and was shaved on the sides with the rest of his hair falling forwards across his face. Other than his odd haircut he was entirely average looking with peachy skin and violet eyes. A small overly sharpened pencil was dangling from the corner of his mouth like someone would hold a cigarette between their lips.

He spoke around the pencil perfectly, "Uchiha Fushicho, here for a neck injury?"

"She was choked." Kakashi supplied hardly helpfully. The doctor, with a spring in his step, pulled my collar down and observed my neck. I had forgone my bandages halfway through the mission, if you were wondering where they were. With a hum he gently pinched the front of my throat and I sharply inhaled. With a nod the medic took his pencil from his mouth and jotted down something on his notes. His hand glowed with green chakra and I braced myself for the pain.

But the pain never came.

The green chakra entered my system and I could absolutely feel it, but unlike the usual burn it was more of an aggressive caress to my throat. I gagged a couple times, which had Kakashi eye the medic oddly, but other than that the feeling was entirely harmless. When his chakra receded the medic held out a hand to me while sticking the pencil back in his mouth, "Ah, I should have introduced myself before letting my chakra wander all over you. The name's Uzumaki Kinoe."

I choked on air.

Um, excuse me? Did you just say... Uzumaki?

Kinoe wasn't perturbed by my dying at his name, he looked over his shoulder at Kakashi and demurred, "She'll live by the way. Bruise will be gone in a few days and if it hurts to eat anything, just have soup until the bruising goes away. Also, since she's finally in after ignoring her checkups for the last two years I have to ask you to leave. Unless of course you're a parental figure or guardian, Hatake-san."

"I'm her shishou, that makes me legally her guardian until she is Chunin." Kakashi retorted as if his honor had been challenged. Something sparkled in Kinoe's eyes.

"Ah, of course, Hatake-san." Kinoe looked down at me and stuck his clipboard under one arm to clap his hands together, "Welp, strip down to your underwear Fushicho-chan, I need to make sure you're growing correctly."

And there was a sudden burst of smoke and Kinoe full out laughed as sitting where Kakashi had once been was a potted plant that I suspect had been outside the examination room. Kinoe finished laughing after a full minute and then he closed the blinds before slamming his open hand on the floor. Ink spread out from his palm across the floor and up the walls before reaching itself again on the ceiling. It flashed for a moment before disappearing entirely.

"So, what was your old name?" Kinoe asked casually, "Before I was Uzumaki Kushina's younger brother, my name was Matt."

I stared at him. My heart had, at some point, felt like it dropped from my chest to my feet.

Kinoe nodded sympathetically, "Ah, I forgot that you probably haven't met any others."

"Other... reborns?" I asked tentatively.

Kinoe brightened visibly, "Ah, so you do get it. I was afraid a cat got your tongue."

Kinoe set his pencil and clipboard down on the counter and pulled himself up next to me. The paper crackled as he adjusted himself and he looked down at me with a smile that was nearly blinding.

"Those of us that are connected are calling ourselves Samsaras, just in case someone can overhear us." Kinoe started to shake one leg, "It's funny actually, what's going on."

Now, you may have noticed I'm being extremely quiet regarding my emotions and feelings during this conversation. To be honest, as soon as Kinoe had told me his name my emotions kind of dropped into my stomach alongside my heart. There was a lingering feeling of immense shock, but slowly cracking through that was relief.

"You know, you're the youngest Samsara I've met. And by far you're in an important position." Kinoe told me, "The rest of the Samsaras are all adults. Hyuuga Himawari and myself so far are the closest to canon members though. Actually, Himawari-chan is a canon cast member."

His smile finally broke and his eyes saddened, "Well, was."

"Was?" I asked.

"Hyuuga Himawari was Hinata's mother."

I blinked, "Wait, as in, the canon mother?"

Kinoe shrugged while his eyes hardened again, "It seems like it. She looked like an older Hinata and she married Hiashi and had Hinata and Hanabi before... before she passed."

"Why were we all put here?" I questioned suddenly. Kinoe flinched before sighing. He shrugged at me again.

"To be honest, no one knows. Himawari was canon, and I was probably supposed to have died with the rest of the Uzumakis. But I knew the clans fate and came with Kushina-nee. You however, are an aberrant." Kinoe frowned, "You're the first divergence from canon that we've come across. To be honest, you're terrifying to us."

"It is pretty scary," I admitted, "I'm put in a pretty shitty spot."

"Yeah, but enough about this. We have all the time in the world to talk about that stuff. What I want to know is who were you before all this? What do you miss the most? I gotta tell you, I really miss my motorcycle. Oh, and video games. Man I miss them." Kinoe changed the topic loudly and I could suddenly see the Uzumaki in him. He was bright and cheerful and now I knew why his haircut was so odd. He probably had it done the same way he had it before he was reborn.

"My name was Veronica-" The name rolled off my tongue oddly, I nearly choked on it. How could I have choked on my own name though? Had it really been that long since I had spoken English?

"Veronica." Kinoe repeated with far more grace than I had, "A nice name. Regal, almost. Perfect for the Uchiha-hime."

I ignored him and his jab at my status, "I suppose I really miss being lazy."

"Ah, laziness. Something we'll never get back." Kinoe mused. And it was true. Ninja couldn't afford to be lazy unless they were a Nara. Ninja had to keep in shape and they were constantly doing something. I myself would never grow back to the weight I had been unless I grew to be extremely tall to make up for my lost fat.

Kinoe and I spoke for a few more minutes until he wrote down his address and gave it to me. I was going to give him mine but he laughed it off, saying I obviously lived in the Uchiha district and if he really needed to know the exact house he could always use his doctor privileges to get the address. He did give me an examination but it was simply him looking me over quickly with chakra. As I was about to leave, he put a hand on my shoulder.

"Ah, before you go, I just wanted to let you know you aren't the only one who has a birthmark from their death." Kinoe told me, "Maybe I'll let you see mine one day."

"Unfair." I complained, "You've seen mine."

"But while a scar tells many stories, a scar doesn't tell them fully. One day we'll exchange the stories of our deaths, how about that?" Kinoe pat my head and ruffled my hair before exiting the room. As he did the seals he had set out suddenly fizzled out without a single trace of them ever being there. I left the hospital quickly and returned home with my thoughts rushing a mile a minute. Most of them were nonsense and when I got home it was still before the academy would let out. So I let myself into Sasuke and I's empty house and settled down on my futon. I put my hands to my head and laughed.

"How funny." I said to myself.

And echoing inside my head was the ominous cackle of Fushicho.

.

The front door opened around the time Sasuke should have been getting home. I was in the kitchen making my specialty when Sasuke entered the kitchen, following the glorious smell of not pickled daikon radish, but sauteed. See, I could make easy shit. Sauteing vegetables and pickling vegetables that could (or could not, in some cases) be pickled. I could also make some old shit from my past life if I could find the ingredients, or something that I figured could substitute. Of course, my substitutes almost never worked but hey, I tried.

Sasuke dropped his books when I returned and a horrified look crossed his face, "You're back? Are those... sauteed daikon radishes?"

"You could maybe not sound like I'm trying to poison you, Sasu." I replied easily. Sasuke picked up his books and moved them to the table, slowly making his way over to where I was. My Sasuke was pretty different from canon Sasuke, you should know now. He was still pretty emo, believing that we were entitled and that we deserved some good luck to balance our bad luck. But he wasn't obsessed with murdering Itachi. Sure, he absolutely wanted revenge but he had a thought process behind his revenge. He knew something wasn't right because a single teenager couldn't destroy a small army of ninja. My Sasuke was smart.

He was really, really smart, actually.

I bet it's those glasses.

Sasuke was top of his class in both physical aspects and the mental aspects, rivaling the bookworm Sakura who had taken to her book ninja ways already. Sasuke and Naruto's friendship flourished while I was off doing menial things (Like shitty training that wasn't going anywhere) and they weren't just friends. They were rivals and they bounced off each other. Naruto was an endless ball of energy and in my old life would have been diagnosed with ADHD. He had issues remembering things, most specifically dates and numbers. If he wanted to remember something, like say, a Jutsu, then by god he was going to have that memorized. He was also really smart, but not in the same way as Sasuke. Naruto simply wasn't a book learner. He could get the hand signs down before Sasuke could every time even if Sasuke studiously studied whatever they were working on.

Naruto was a hands on learner and Sasuke was a watch and learn kind of kid. While they learned differently they flourished together.

"Well, welcome home." Sasuke awkwardly muttered while pushing at his glasses, "What happened on your mission?"

"Nothing too exciting." I shrugged.

Sasuke eyed me critically, "So says the bruise on your neck."

I shrugged again, "Bruises could mean a lot of things."

"Specifically a hand shaped bruise could mean something."

I turned around and tossed a raw radish at him. Sasuke caught it and looked less than impressed. He complained, "Why would that stupid shishou of yours take you out of the village and let you come back looking like that?"

"I'm fine Sasu. I'm alive, aren't I?"

Sasuke grouched, "Those bruises suggest you could not have been."

I waved him off and there was a pause in conversation as I poured oil into the pan where I was cooking. It sizzled loudly and Sasuke watched over my shoulder as I cooked. When I was nearly finished I had Sasuke set the table for the two of us and as we were sitting down to eat there was a knock on the door. Sasuke had set out a third set of utensils so I assumed he had invited a friend over.

"The idiot is here to eat with us." Sasuke called as he answered the front door. There was a loud cry of "You bastard!" in response to Sasuke calling his guest an idiot. He returned with the sunny Naruto. I had known it was him immediately because I could feel Kurama's chakra from a good distance and only Naruto could have the feel of sunshine so strong in his energetic chakra.

Naruto knelt on one of the cushions and helped himself to food after greeting me cheerfully. After we all had began eating hr asked through a mouthful of food, "Sasuke said you were out on a mission, that's so cool!"

I shrugged in response. Sasuke elbowed Naruto when he went to further question me and Naruto started to inhale his food at an impressive speed. I ate slowly and found myself eyeing Naruto curiously. If Kinoe was Naruto's uncle, then why was Naruto the same as canon Naruto? Wouldn't Kinoe be his guardian?

Filing this question away, I asked the two boys how the academy was while I was gone and Naruto began on a tangent about how stupid the new math curriculum was and he didn't understand it. Sasuke explained it was trajectory and calculating distance for that and that, in my mind, equated to us starting trig. I was the best in class in math by far, even outdoing Sakura. Sakura, who was still friends with Ino at this point, was extremely against me. She hated that I could outdo her in math. For our class currently the three top kunoichi were myself, Sakura and Hinata.

A bit surprising but it made sense. Hinata was a Hyuuga and she could flawlessly pull off the three academy jutsu. She could decimate any of us in a spar if she was allowed to use Hyuuga techniques but in a regular spar she was far too timid and was easily overpowered. She was smart and kept up with her studies but was nowhere near Sakura in any subjects. I myself was a bit behind on history which put Sakura above me.

All in all, the academy was going well enough. I really was using it as practice for jutsu and to learn science and history. Of course, I was also socializing slightly.

Kyuketsu was a good companion to have, and the day after my mission the quiet boy remarked at lunch, "You have a bruise on your throat."

"I got choked on my mission." I replied, chewing on my bento that consisted of last night's leftovers.

Kyuketsu hummed in response, "As expected of the Uchiha-hime."

I glowered at him and he amended, "For your first out of village mission you survived at least, hime."

How mocking of him. But that was how Kyuketsu was, he was a surly little asshole with a sharp tongue. While he was quiet and didn't rise to many confrontations he certainly could rile me up. For a kid he was intelligent so I put up with the attitude he had.

Why, I think he was even worse than I was.

.

Something to live by is if something can go wrong, it will absolutely go wrong. What law was that? Murphy's law? It's been far too long since I've needed to recall something like that. Now, as I mention things going wrong, it has everything to do with what I had planned for myself. It seems while I didn't want to be the avenging powerhouse Uchiha, everyone else was trying to set me up to be just that. How, you ask?

"You'll be graduating with this years class." Kakashi told me cheerfully as he watched me attempt to hang upside down from the closest tree.

I nearly lost my control and inhaled deeply while there was a crunch as suddenly the bark beneath my feet was loosened by my chakra. I shifted away from the broken piece and looked at Kakashi with a less than impressed expression, "What."

Kakashi nodded and his tone became much more serious, "You're about even with this year's rookie of the year in regards to your total statistical numbers. While you are not nearly a prodigy after working with you for this long you have progressed to meet Genin standards."

"Wait back up-I'm even with Hyuuga Neji in stats?"

Kakashi blinked at me but got over whatever had made him pause and cheerfully handed me a sheet of paper he produced from his Icha Icha book. Apparently he had been using it as a bookmark. I unfolded the paper and scanned it quickly, then actually realized what it was and went back to read it.

"What the shit, my intelligence is a 5?"

My intelligence was my highest score. The scores were all out of five and regarding the rest of my skills I had a 1 in Ninjutsu, 2 in Taijutsu, a 1 in Genjutsu, a 1.5 in strength, a 2.5 in speed, a 2 in stamina, and a 4 in hand seals. My total was nineteen, which was actually pretty good for a fresh academy graduate. More so, I had an obscene amount of D ranks already considering I had been doing them for almost two years. Considering I usually did at least one a day, sometimes two or three if it was a beyond easy day, I had managed to rack up a whopping 752 D ranks.

I looked at Kakashi and he chuckled, "You're mature beyond your years, don't think it went unnoticed."

I frowned, "It was the brothel."

"Actually no."

"Liar."

"The brothel just helped prove it. I do want to know how you know what a brothel is." Kakashi gave a pleasant eye crinkle to show he was smiling at me.

My frown melted into a scowl and I thought fast. Kakashi could see through lies like he was looking through a window at them so I implied, "I've been able to henge semi-decently for awhile. You don't wanna know where I can get in with that."

Kakashi watched me for a moment before accepting the answer. I questioned, "Do you know what my team will be yet?"

"You still need to pass the graduation test."

If I could scowl any deeper I would, I resorted to giving Kakashi a very unimpressed look, "Well if I fail you'd have to have been literally the worst shishou in history."

Kakashi conceded, "Alright, then the rest of the year has to pass their tests."

I settled into silent brooding and Kakashi attempted to motivate me, "Well, at least you'll be able to move onto more advanced subjects now. Perhaps Genjutsu? Ninjutsu?"

"I don't see why you haven't already taught me that. I mean, with my sharingan I'm supposedly born a Genjutsu master. Maybe I'll even steal the name of copycat from you." I told Kakashi. Kakashi snorted and I scowled at him.

"Your face will get stuck like that, Fushicho-chan."

"Whatever, shishou."

And it was about that time when suddenly my thoughts wandered and I found my feet no longer attached to the tree. I fell a good few feet and landed in an awkward roll before slamming onto my back and subsequently smashing my poor ass right onto the hard ground. I yelped and rubbed at my sore ass while Kakashi watched with something akin to amusement in his sole dark eye.

"Son of a-" I cut myself off.

Kakashi sighed, "Where do you get that mouth of yours?"

AN

Fun Fact- Fushicho is meant to be a shitty little brat. That's her current personality, whiny and lazy.

Childhood is boring and repetitive.

Anyway, to compare her to her classmates she's low Genin level. She's about Sasuke from the bridge builder mission, however she is already able to water walk and tree walk. Currently she has above average chakra reserves but she still doesn't have the reserves that Sasuke would have at that time. Currently, she is training to build her reserves. Her point total of 19 is a few less than Chunin exam Neji. Now, regarding her D ranks. That is a high number because she is getting a mission every day. I looked up other characters data book info for their missions and I call bullshit on how little missions there are. So, I'm assuming the data book only covers missions we've witnessed or heard about.

I've also named Hinata's mother after what she names her daughter. I'm thinking that perhaps Hinata named her daughter after her deceased mother.

Thank you so much to the following for reviewing:

Blackbird0
Thomas Drovin
SupremeGeneralJoker
cheshiregiggles
lizy2000
RadioPoisoning
chloemika
Belladonna Dixon