Out of the Ashes

Chapter 15

People I Like

Kinoe lived in a kind of alright apartment. It was in the higher class district where jounin and ANBU usually lived, mixed with some civilians. I wasn't sure what I had expected when I knocked on his door but I got a good laugh from Kinoe's pajamas.

"Hime?" Kinoe mumbled, half asleep. It was probably about seven in the morning and I had ditched Bu and Kyuketsu for the morning in favor of talking to Kinoe. I spent most of the night awake and thinking about Sasuke. But my thoughts branched further out from just Sasuke. Since I was so low on sleep I was in a worse mood that usual. I pushed past Kinoe, wearing a half open bathrobe with bunny slippers, and glanced around his apartment before I found his couch. I sat down and Kinoe followed me, yawning as he walked.

"Can I help you?" he managed to ask through an especially long yawn while throwing himself onto the couch beside me.

I nodded, "Tell me about Kinoe's life."

"Kinoe's life?" he blinked, "How did you go from fighting your brother to that?"

For a second I didn't catch what he said. But then I realized he must have spectated my fight with Sasuke, "Were you... spying on us!?"

"Excuse me! I'll have you know I am a secondary source!" Kinoe exclaimed, immediately defensive at my angry tone.

I scowled. Who was it then? Bu? Kyuketsu? I bet it was fucking Bu. I was going to maim him when I saw him later. How dare he watch something so personal!

Kinoe interrupted my murderous pondering, "Um, it wasn't either of your teammates. It was Kakashi." It says something that Kinoe immediately knew who I was going after.

"Kakashi?" I repeated. What the hell had Kakashi been doing there? Kakashi's thoughts on me were something between "I would not touch with a five foot pole" and "Small child prone to tantrums". That means he doesn't come visiting my home nor does he watch me and my brother have a sibling spat.

Kinoe grinned and enlightened me, "He was pissed off at you. You didn't tell him we left on a mission so you wasted his valuable time since he thought he had training sessions with us."

Oh shit. So that was who I forgot to tell when we were leaving the village. I knew I forgot someone. At least Kakashi wasn't the most important person to have not been informed.

Wait. I'm being sidetracked. Fuck off Kinoe.

"Don't try and avoid my question! I want to know what you have been doing as Kinoe!" I announced again. Kinoe shifted and ran a hand over his chin.

"Hm, I think I need to shave." Kinoe stood up and I grabbed his robe and growled.

Kinoe sat back down, "Can you at least tell me what brought this up in that airy little head of yours?"

I ignored the insult to focus on getting the conversation where I wanted it to go, although I was steaming about being called an air-head, "I was awake all night. I probably slept a total of an hour or two. I just kept thinking, Sasu is my brother. He is actually my brother."

"Yes, you both came from your mother." hummed Kinoe, leaning back and putting his feet up on the table.

I rolled my eyes, "No you idiot. Like, it just hit me. He's not just Sasuke. He's Sasu."

"You finally realized he's an actual human being instead of some character?" Kinoe guessed, and I blinked at him, "You're wondering about Kushina-nee."

I opened my mouth but Kinoe kept talking, "I tried to hint to you yesterday that Sasuke needed some TLC. You need to remember that you're all he has now. Pushing him away is going to make him an asshole. No one likes an asshole brother."

"How are you so calm?" I demanded. Kinoe looked surprised. He asked why he wouldn't be calm.

"Because it's Sasuke!" I exclaimed, "You know, important to this world! To the plot!"

"I hate to say it, but the plot is done fucked." sighed Kinoe, then he shrugged, "Well, kind of. The plot is a fucking stubborn asshole too."

I questioned that. Kinoe had to think for a moment and he decided to make tea while he tried to find a way he wanted to get out what came next. When the tea was done and he was much more awake and alert, he seemed much more open.

"I was born as Uzumaki Kinoe, younger brother to Uzumaki Kushina. I got the fuck out of Uzushio when Kushina-nee left so that's why I'm not dead or scattered. A lot of the Samsaras that know about the plot don't want to do anything. Some are using their knowledge to stay safe and out of harm while others aren't aware of the plot. There aren't many here, I suppose I'll introduce you to some later but as of now they're only going to do something if you do something crazy." Kinoe took a sip of his tea and took a moment to recuperate, "I didn't want my sister to die. I wasn't one of the ones who sat around and didn't do anything."

"Then what happened?" I inquired. I almost winced at how blunt I was. I wanted to ask in a much nicer way.

Kinoe closed his eyes and no doubt was remembering, vividly, October 10th, "I wasn't allowed to help with Naruto's birth because I was family. I tried to fight to be with my sister but no one would let me. You want to know who got in my fucking way? Danzo. I hate that goddamn old man. All day I'm running around trying to figure out how to get past that barrier because I'm good at what I do, but I'm god awful at anything I don't specialize in. I don't know jack shit about barriers. I get called to the Hokage's office when I'm guarding the barrier from the outside and hoping to stop Obito before he takes her away. Then I'm forced away."

"You couldn't just say fuck off?"

"You don't say no to orders, Fushicho. When I got back Danzo was the one who summoned me with his Root members and he told me to stop meddling in our Hokage's affairs. Danzo's never liked me, you see. Well after the fighting started against Kurama I rushed to try and find my sister. I wanted to heal her or at the very least stop Minato from using the reaper seal. Root blocked me again. You wondered why I don't go near Naruto? Danzo. He threatened him. Told me his Jinchuuriki status made him too important for my influences. Told me he'd take Naruto away if I went near him. What could I do? I lost all my political backing with Kushina-nee and Minato dying. So I let him defeat me. In the end, Naruto will become great with great friends and a great future without me."

Kinoe stopped talking and I slowly finished my tea and pretended I didn't hear the sniffles from Kinoe or see his glassy eyes.

"It wasn't even just Kushina-nee I lost. You remember what I said about Hinata's mother? Himawari? She was on my genin team. I... I fucking loved her. I told myself I wouldn't let her fall to her condemned fate. I did everything to heal her when she had Hanabi. She was alive. She was fine. For days there were no complications. But the plot will try its hardest to get back on track. Because somehow, Himawari died in the night. The plot is a fucking asshole." Kinoe put his head in his hands.

I didn't want to disturb Kinoe, but my final question came out of my mouth before I could stop it.

"Then why am I here?"

Kinoe didn't answer. We sat in silence for a long time. Then finally, Kinoe shakily whispered, "Why are you the only drastic change the plot has allowed?"

I couldn't reply to that. Instead I stood up. I apologized for intruding and told Kinoe that I would tell Kyuketsu and Bu there was no training for today. Then I closed the door and ignored the raging emotions that Kinoe's chakra was forcing out.

Honestly I had more questions now. Like, if the plot was so fixed, why was I here? Why was Sasuke so different? As a direct result of that, Naruto is changing as well. Who would Bu and Kyuketsu have been in canon? Would Kinoe exist? If so, who was he? Did he die in Uzushio? I haven't forgotten about the woman during the massacre either.

What did my future hold?

During my small existential crisis I arrived to the training grounds. Bu must have tried greeting me and when I didn't respond, he clearly wanted to be annoying. So I was knocked out of my thoughts by Bu tackling me. Obviously we both fell to the floor and I started to grapple with him.

"What the fuck?!" I yelled as I tried to strangle Bu with a choke hold. Bu tucked his chin down though so my hold did jack shit to him.

With his voice not hindered by my choke in the slightest, Bu announced, "Grappling!"

Kyuketsu sighed very loudly, probably to get us to stop, but as soon as Bu challenged me I was ready. Grappling for us was kind of any means necessary. If you grappled an enemy they would bite, punch, and everything in between. So that's why I didn't feel bad when I grabbed a good fistful of Bu's hair by his scalp and yanked.

Bu found the strength to roll us over and slam me into the ground. I lost my grip on his neck and Bu used this as a chance to try and pin me. The most ideal position would be a full mount, which is sitting on their chest. And Bu was an overachiever so he went for that. The problem with that is I'm very good with my legs and getting a full mount on me is very difficult.

Kyuketsu snorted as I brought one leg up and tried to strangle Bu with his neck behind my knee. I grabbed my ankle and tried to squeeze that leg's shin to my thigh. Bu however is a slippery bastard and got out. I used this as my chance to bring my other leg up and try to choke him out with both legs. Bu didn't really care for this much and he sat back and tried to get me in a leg lock.

After a few minutes of intense grappling the match ended with Kyuketsu remarking on how lewd our position was and Bu promptly tossing me away like I was diseased.

"You're such a little bitch!" I laughed, "Letting Kyu-Kyu get to you!"

Kyuketsu glowered at me and boy did I feel the intensity of it. But I ignored it.

The day went by as usual and before I knew it, several went by. My existential crisis was averted by timely moments with Bu and Kyuketsu. And don't worry. Sasuke and I made it a thing where we always did something every weekend and if a mission forced me to miss it then we did it during the week. This week we ate out and that was fun.

One morning, Kyuketsu had clan duties to attend to and Bu overslept. So I did was any person would do. I went to go wake up Bu in the rudest way possible. I mean I was pretty pissed off I was left waiting by myself at our training grounds at like six in the morning. So I went to Bu's house in high spirits to antagonize the boy. Instead of bothering to knock on the door or ring the bell I climbed the wall and let myself into Bu's room quietly.

Unlike usual his futon was neat and I found he was actually asleep at his desk. I crept over and observed what he had fallen asleep doing. His desk area was a huge mess with fabric everywhere and a pair of sharp scissors discarded off to the side. He was asleep on one arm and it looked like he fell asleep in the middle of sewing. A closer look and I realized he was actually embroidering onto fabric.

As I took a closer look Bu started to rouse from my presence. His eyes shot open and the needle he fell asleep with in his hand immediately got shoved through his hand as he tensed at noticing me. He bit down on his lip to stop from yelling.

"Oh shit, sorry Bu." I apologized, "My fault." I opened his injured hand and grimaced at the fact that the needle went cleanly through the side of his hand. Instead of letting Bu know what I was about to do I just grabbed the needle and ripped it out as quickly and cleanly as I could. Bu slammed his good hand down on the desk.

"You couldn't have warned me!?" Bu exclaimed, his voice high as he prevented from yelling again.

I shrugged, "Sorry I came unannounced."

Bu shook his head, "No that's perfectly fine. What I meant was you couldn't have told me you were going to pull the damn needle out!?"

Oh, that? I grinned, "It's better to rip a band-aid off than to slowly peel it."

Rolling his eyes Bu stood up. Then we both looked down at what he was wearing. I stifled a giggle. He was wearing pants this time, I'll give him that. But they had smiling turtles across them.

"Go ahead and laugh." Bu sighed, rubbing his head, "Shit, what time is it?"

That's when Bu's door slammed open and Onna stood confidently in the doorway with a sly smile, "Bu the door stays open when there's a girl in here. Especially if it's still dark out!"

Bu about died. I snickered and Onna offered me breakfast. I followed her downstairs while Bu got ready and soon he came down the stairs with his face still looking a bit pinker than usual. He couldn't make eye contact with neither me nor his mother. After breakfast Bu retrieved stuff from his room before running downstairs to meet with me outside.

I was surprised when I didn't see any of his gear, "We're not training today?"

"I need to buy some supplies. You're welcome to come." Bu looked away, "But if you make fun of me-"

"Let's go then. Is it for the thing you were embroidering?" I started to walk down the street and Bu ran after me.

Bu nodded, "Yeah. I'm almost done but I ran out of the thread I was using."

I hummed as if I understood. I had never embroidered something in either of my lives, nor had I sewn much. I did something for home ec in my last life but so far in this life I just turned ruined clothes into rags.

The sun had come up when we left the house. It was getting colder now which meant pants wouldn't kill me. Konoha was generally Florida most of the time but pants were more useful for ninja. If it wasn't summer when it became actual hell here then pants were fine. Especially if they were made of this really nice, but really expensive, fabric that pretty much ignored logic and kept out the heat. I decided to spoil myself and buy a shit load of clothes made with it since I was a rich brat who couldn't dent our fortune if I tried.

Reaching the market district put Bu in his element. I'm seriously telling you this kid is a domestic housewife. Sure he's a bit of a pyro sometimes, exploding and setting things on fire, but other than those minor flaws he's your ideal wife. Bu ignored the food stalls except for one selling spicy treats. He was a fan of spicy food and these were pretty much cookies with peppers instead of chocolate chips.

Bu offered me one as he inhaled one without an issue. I accepted warily and took a bite. Bu grinned when I made a noise and felt my tongue go "What the fuck?!" at me. I liked my food's taste doubled but I couldn't eat straight up peppers apparently. I could hardly taste my own burning through the actual burning that pepper caused.

We reached the door Bu was aiming for. When we entered I felt like I entered a really small Michaels. There were several shelves with different kinds of art supplies on it. Some had paints, some had inks, some had papers. It was really interesting so I walked through the aisles until I found Bu perusing the back wall that was dedicated to yarn and thread. There were a million different kind of threads and yarns and I was fascinated.

"Some have special properties. The thread I'm looking for is expensive because it has iron wire for durability and a chakra coating to make it easy to clean." Bu explained as I lifted up five versions of a single color of thread. I oohed and put the threads back in place. Bu found the thread he was looking for and paid. The shopkeeper was very familiar with him and teased him.

"This isn't a very exciting date place, Obu-chan." the older man teased him, "Go get dango or something!"

"It's not a date." huffed Bu as we were leaving.

I snickered, "I mean I'm clearly the man in this relationship so I should be leading us."

"Pfft. You wish." Bu laughed, "I'm just a jack of all trades."

"Sure you are."

We returned to his house and found Onna left a note saying she was meeting with a friend. Bu rolled his eyes and groaned when he saw the note.

"She's out with her new boyfriend." Bu grumbled as we retreated to his room and Bu damn sure made that door was open this time.

Oh? Was there trouble in paradise? I bet Bu was threatened by this new boyfriend of his mother's. Now that I think about it, what about Bu's father? I looked around Bu's room for a picture of his father but couldn't find any. I found several of him and his mother but that was about it. Oh yeah, we also had to take our team photo soon. Kinoe was late in scheduling us because he wanted us to be in our all season gear instead of our summer clothes. Or so he said. I bet he just procrastinated.

"What's wrong with him?" I asked.

Bu almost exploded, "He's awful! Terrible, absolutely terrible! He's charming and nice and handsome and strong!"

I blinked, "Aren't those good things...?"

"What if he's permanent!" Bu huffed, "I don't want him to be permanent!"

I wasn't really sure what to say. I wasn't exactly someone you went to for help in situations like these.

"Sorry," Bu apologized as he slid into his desk chair and started to embroider again. I took up a nice spot on his futon, "I just don't want him trying to barge in here and become part of our family."]

I hummed in acknowledgement but otherwise didn't say anything. Bu was quiet and focused as he worked on his embroidering and I stared around the room. Bu had an impressive collection of various crafting supplies as well as a metric fuckton of pictures with his mom.

I blinked.

Was that me in his photo collection?

I stood up and approached the photos and stared at one. I actually remembered this one now that I was staring at it. When Bu and I were younger our mothers took us to a festival. I recall Bu being dressed in a female yutaka and that was the first time Bu and I interacted without spitting and hissing at each other.

I must have laughed because Bu looked up and saw me over at his pictures. He flew out of the chair and I immediately turned to find the embarrassing picture he was going to try and hide from me. I spread my arms out and hunched over the pictures while Bu desperately tried to get around me. He reached past and grabbed a picture frame but it was too late. I had already seen it.

"Pft you look just like your mom with makeup on!"

"Shut up!"

The picture was Bu and his mom, Bu being about seven or eight, and Bu was wearing his mothers makeup. He clearly had put it on himself but for a child Bu had a steady hand. His winged eyeliner was pretty good but nowhere near as awesome as Onna's. It was pretty funny how Bu was a clone of his mother. But don't think I'm calling Bu feminine. Despite the fact he has pink hair and really nice eyelashes, he's not actually that feminine. His jawline is strong and his features too sharp to be feminine in the slightest.

Bu kicked me out soon after and I didn't complain. I spent some good time with Bu and I made my way home feeling pretty good about myself. I was inside the Uchiha compound when Kakashi landed beside me and fell into step. Kakashi beat the crap out of me at the last team practice with him because I didn't tell him about our mission. How rude, right? Can't believe he'd beat up such a cutie like me.

"Yo." Kakashi greeted me.

I wasn't as pleasant, "What do you want."

Not even a question. A statement. Kakashi doesn't deal with me if he doesn't have something he gains from it, so I try and hurry the process along. Talking to him too long is annoying anyway.

Kakashi hummed, "Such a mean way to say hello to your old shishou."

I snorted and Kakashi got on with his reason for coming, "Why do you treat your team as if they're the only people that can make you happy?"

I stopped as the question hit me. I looked at Kakashi and must have had a confused look on my face, because I was confused, because Kakashi elaborated for me.

"I noticed you only show your pleasant side to them. What do Obu, Kyuketsu and Kinoe have that others lack for you to act human around them?"

"Tch, get off my case." I huffed, "Maybe I like them."

"Then why don't you treat your brother like them? You do like Sasuke, don't you?" Kakashi retorted. I was silent after that and when we reached my house I spun to face Kakashi. I glared at him and stared into his single eye.

"You wouldn't understand, shishou. So don't even try to figure out how I feel." I told him. Kakashi merely raised his eyebrow and shrugged. Then he disappeared in a shunshin and I entered my house. Sasuke and I had a pleasant dinner that night and from then on, I evaluated how I treated Sasuke. You know what? I stopped treating Sasuke like Sasuke, and soon he was no longer Sasuke to me. He was Sasu, my dorky brother with glasses and not the avenger from another life.

Oh, I also realized something else.

What the fuck Kakashi, you stalker! First my fight with my brother, now apparently you're watching me interact with my team? Fucking Kakashi.

AN:

So I drew a portrait of Bu. It's on my deviantart (Also ShadowBloodNinja) if you're curious. I started Fushicho and want to do Kyuketsu and Kinoe after her.

I really wanted to wrap up the Fushicho and Sasuke thing. I've been purposely ignoring Sasuke because Fushicho was starting to just figure him as "Sasuke the avenger" until last chapter and this chapter where she realized "Wait that's Sasu." This also previews Fushicho's thoughts on her team, as Kakashi has hinted at what he's seen before and it's starting Kinoe's feelings on things.

Fun Fact- Fushicho is an unreliable narrator. I try and hint as to what actually is happening but Fushicho states what she thinks. (Example, when she thought Sasuke died.)

Thanks to the following for reviewing (:

Thomas Drovin
grifman275