573 days since the Uzushiogakure Massacre

Uzumaki Kushina

I knew Kichiro hated fighting. Every time he went to the Academy to spar with some of the older students, he would come home in a bad mood. Sometimes, but not all the time, it would make him feel better when I made him ramen. That's why I never asked him to spar with me and Minato. I love my brother, I really do, but he was never very strong. I was always the one who protected him from bullies on Uzu. I was the one who got him down when he got stuck in trees or pulled him to shore when we swam too far out and he couldn't make it back. For a long time, I didn't believe it when he beat all the older kids in a spar. I definitely didn't believe it when I heard he beat an entire Genin team with a little taijutsu and some senbon. When the rumors were no longer rumors and the sensei even let us watch one of his matches from the classroom window, I couldn't ignore the facts any longer. My wimpy big brother might actually be a better ninja than me.

I had to know who was better. "Nii-chan? When's your next day off?" I asked as we sat down and dug into the takeout Kichiro brought home.

"Tomorrow. Why?"

"Really?"

"Yeah, Sakumo told me today that training would be cut short for the week but wouldn't tell me why. Mission, I think, but when I tried to tail him, I nearly got killed when he went into a Jōnin training ground. Actually, it might have been ANBU, I don't know, Sakumo didn't let me stick around long enough to find out. Hospital isn't expecting me until noon the next day. So, I have a day and a half free."

"Wanna do something?"

"You have the Academy tomorrow."

"I know, but after."

"Depends on what it is. I'm not helping you stalk Minato."

"No! I'm not stalking anyone! I was just thinking we could spend the afternoon together. I want to see who's better."

Kichiro put down his chopsticks and frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I want to spar."

He shrugged. "Okay, I'll fix up whatever poor bloke you want to beat up." He shoveled some noodles into his mouth.

"No, I want to spar against you."

Kichiro choked and the next thing I knew, a noodle was dangling out of his nose.

"Ew!" I immediately regretted saying that because Kichiro grinned mischievously and started pulling the noodle out of his nose. It didn't stop there. He grabbed the end of the noodle dangling out of his mouth and started pulling it back out his mouth. I screeched and tried to run away, but he just chased into the bathroom, which was the only room in the house that locked, calling himself the noodle monster.

When I dared to come out several minutes later, the mess was cleaned up and my plate was suspiciously untouched. I sat down and watched him carefully as I picked up my chopsticks. There was only a few bites left on his plate, which he pushed around.

"Did I hear you right?" Kichiro asked quietly.

"Just one spar," I answered.

"But why?" He pleaded.

"I saw you win against the older students. I want to know if I'm as good as you."

"You know I hate fighting, Kushina. Why does it matter how good you are compared to me?"

I opened my mouth to answer, but I couldn't think of anything to say. He was right, it didn't really matter at all. It wasn't like Kichiro would ever go rogue and I needed to know if I could stop him. Except, he never said he wouldn't spar, he just wanted a good reason. "I know it doesn't really matter who's better, but it doesn't change the fact I'm curious."

He just stared at his plate, pushing the noodles around.

I set my chopsticks to the side. "Last week, there was an extra class that taught us about how to fight someone we know is stronger than us. Basically, the sensei told us to fight smarter than our opponent. One of the ways he told us to be smarter is to pay attention to what we can learn from our opponents as they fight. Are they arrogant, confident, or scared? Are they itching for a fight, following orders, or don't have a choice? Do they like to fight, are they indifferent, or do they hate it? Most people become someone different when they fight and we can learn more about our friends and comrades. I want to know who you are in a fight."

Kichiro stood up sharply and brought his plate to the sink. He scraped the last of his noodles into the take-out container and washed the plate even though it was my turn to do the dishes. My eyes burned. I shouldn't have asked him. I knew how he'd respond.

He held out a hand for my plate. "Are you done?" He asked emotionlessly.

I nodded and he took the half-eaten plate, scraped it into a container, washed it, then he took the container and left to give it to the first beggar he came across. While he was gone, I pulled out my homework, but I couldn't focus, I just stared at the blank assignment through tear-blurred eyes until Kichiro returned. He walked past without even looking at me and locked himself in the bathroom. I didn't hear him come out of the bathroom. I didn't know anyone was standing behind me until I felt them touch my head, fingers tangling in my hair, beginning to pull, a second hand in my peripheral—I didn't even think before I turned around, a kunai in hand, knocking both hands away.

Minato's voice echoed in my head. Your strength is taijutsu but you're almost always going to be weaker than your opponent. Your knees and elbows are stronger and you can deliver more force with them instead of your fists. Manipulate your opponent to be where you want them to be.

I jumped inside their guard and attacked. My left elbow swung at their left ribs—blocked—my right knee jerked towards the hip joint of their right leg—blocked—my right hand feinted at their face—they flinched—and when they took a step back, my left foot was there to trip them. As they fell, I pressed my kunai to their neck and landed on top of them.

If you can bear looking your opponent in the eye as you kill them, you're not fit to be a kunoichi. If you don't look your opponent in the eye as you kill them and acknowledge exactly what you're doing, you're not fit to be my sister.

It was the harshest thing Kichiro ever said to me. As we hit the floor, I looked into my opponent's eyes, ready to slash their neck. Immediately, I recognized Kichiro and jerked the kunai away from his neck in horror. He wasn't armed, in fact, he was wearing his pajamas and stared up at me patiently, thankfully unhurt.

But I almost killed someone. I almost killed my brother. The kunai clattered to the floor beside Kichiro's shoulder. I made him fight me. He probably thought I did it on purpose because I was upset he refused. I almost hurt him—I almost killed my brother. I stood up and tried to lunge away from him and towards the door. I had to leave before I hurt him again. He probably never wanted to see me again anyways.

At the last second, Kichiro caught both of my wrists. He must have used chakra to hold on because I knew his grip wasn't that strong. My momentum pulled him to his feet, but he still didn't let go as I tried to twist my wrists away from him.

Kichiro yanked me towards him and wrapped both arms around my torso, pinning my arms to my side. "It's okay, Kushina, I'm not upset," he promised. How could he not be upset? I hurt him—I almost killed him!

I tried to push him away, but I his arms were locked around the middle of my back and I couldn't even wriggle out of his grasp.

"I'm not going to let go, Kushina. I'm not going to let you run off like this."

I barely managed to stifle a sob.

"I love you, Kushina. Nothing you do is going to change that."

Shaking my head, I grabbed his shoulder dug into the muscle, preparing to dislocate his arm so he'd know just how close it came.

Before I could do anything, Kichiro put his hand over my shoulder blade and with a small burst of medical ninjutsu, forced my entire arm to relax until it fell back to my side. "I love you, Kushina. I'm not going to let you leave like this." I tried to step backwards, but Kichiro's feet were rooted to the ground.

I fell limp against him and started sobbing into his shoulder as we both sunk to the ground. Eventually, his grip loosened and he gently brushed the tears from my face. I grabbed his hand and shifted until I was leaning back against his chest and could thoroughly examine his hand. It was rough, dry, and cold. Unlike any other medic I've met, his hands were roughly callused, like a farmer's, from his time working with his sticks. His knuckles had split earlier in the day, but instead of just healing them, he tied a strip of cloth around them and kept training.

I untied the cloth, carefully separating it from the scab as Kichiro watched. It must have hurt, but he didn't even twitch, he just flexed his hand once I finished.

"What do you see?" He asked curiously.

"I don't know," I answered quietly. He put my hands in his and rested his chin on my shoulder. He pressed one finger glowing with medical ninjutsu against the palm of my right hand. The faint scars on my hands started to glow.

"I know what I see." He touched the calluses from the hours I spent with a fūinjutsu brush. "I see someone who worked hard to master the skills they learned." He rubbed his thumb over the chakra burn around one of the tenketsu in my hand from where I activated the whirlpool seals around Uzu as we escaped. "I see someone who isn't afraid of her scars, someone who refuses to hide from the terrors and pain she's faced." He folded my hand into a fist and wrapped his hands around it. "I see someone who keeps fighting for what she believes in, no matter how much success she has or how many mistakes she makes."

I had nothing to say. "I love you, Nii-chan."

"I love you too, Kushina, now go get ready for bed, we're going to have an early night."

"I have homework."

"Don't worry about your homework, you want to be well-rested for our spar tomorrow."

"Are you mad that I asked?"

"No, you just caught me by surprise. I expected you to ask months ago and when you didn't, I though you never would."

"But you still don't want to spar."

"Kushina, I've seen you fight. I'm not masochistic enough to want to be on the receiving side of your attacks, but the sensei was right. I can watch every fight you've ever had and know every skill you possess, but it won't be the same. I'm not naïve enough to believe we'll never fight together so I was planning to start sparring regularly shortly before whichever one of us becomes Genin first. Now, really, go get ready for bed. We're going to have an early night tonight." Kichiro pushed me to my feet and shooed me towards the bathroom.

By the time I came out, Kichiro was putting my Academy things away.

"But what about my homework?"

"I finished it. I mastered your handwriting yesterday, so it's no problem, you'll get your average homework grade on it."

Kichiro dropped my bag on top of my shoes next to the door, then flopped down on his bed. Most nights I ended up crawling in his bed anyways, but I didn't even lie down in mine. I just curled up against Kichiro's side. He groaned and muttered that I'd have to learn to sleep by myself eventually, but hugged me anyways before turning his back.

(o_o)

574 days since the Uzushiogakure Massacre

Uzumaki Kushina

Kichiro was perched on one of the lamp posts outside the Academy when I ran out of the building that afternoon. He looked so cool sitting up there as if it was the most comfortable place on the street.

"Why are you so excited‽" Minato whined as he struggled to keep up.

"Nii-chan promised to spar with me today," I chirped and grabbed his wrist to drag him over to Kichiro.

As soon as he saw us, he waved and jumped down, spinning around the lamp post on his way down with a whoop, completely ruining his cool image.

"That was fun!" He smiled at us as we ran up. "You two should try it sometime."

"Where're we gonna spar?" I asked. Belatedly, I realized where we were. Half the heads milling around the Academy turned towards us, closely followed by the other half.

Kichiro winced. "It looks like we're going to have an audience. I really need to learn to shunshin. Anyways, the Academy training grounds will work since it has a barrier for the younger observers to wait behind."

I skipped over there, pulling Kichiro behind me and pointedly ignoring the muttering. We faced off in the middle of the training ground.

"No seals or jutsu above C-rank. No targeting the audience. Safe word is 'ocean' and if someone interferes, we stop. Anything to add?"

"Don't go easy on me, Nii-chan!"

"Don't worry, I don't intend to."

We made the seal of confrontation then settled into our opening stances. Kichiro's beginning stance was horrible enough to make me wince, he wasn't even holding his sticks properly. "Nii-chan, are you sure about this?"

He smirked and then he turned into a blur. I barely managed to block the first series of attacks. I knew immediately that he would be the hardest opponent I'd faced since the Kiri ninja in Uzu. I took a deep breath and let my instincts take over. Dodge left, left, right, duck, left punch, jump, roll right, left kick, jump, ouch!

Unsurprisingly, Kichiro landed the first hit, which sent me reeling backwards. I dropped an explosive tag between us, forcing Kichiro to back off for a moment. A moment was all I got before being forced to replace myself to avoid getting riddled with senbon. We prowled around each other as I struggled to figure out how to set a trap. Before I could do more than drop a few explosive notes, Kichiro engaged me in another round of taijutsu.

Dodge right, jump, jump, avoid the tag, block kick, jump, jump, right punch. Why was he only attacking my legs? I figured it out a moment later when my left foot sunk into a hole, forcing me to twist my ankle or stand my ground. I stood my ground and landed two elbow strikes to Kichiro's torso in exchange for a cuffed ear and one of his sticks barely missing my head and nearly breaking my clavicle instead.

Kichiro pulled back, only to engage me again. Genjutsu. I didn't even see Kichiro's hands move as his Genjutsu version attempted to punch me in the face. The moment I felt his fist strike my jaw, I dispelled it, spinning as hard as I could to block Kichiro's strike from behind. To my surprise, I managed to knock one of the sticks out of his hand. Instead of disarming him, the stick hung from his wrist. The next thing I knew, my other hand was stinging from where he struck my knuckles with his other stick, forcing me to drop the kunai. Somehow, he used me knocking the stick out of his hand to wrap the strap of his stick around my wrist, binding out arms together. The kunai had gone between the bones of his arm, but it didn't faze him. Finally, he had a kunai against my throat and was smiling at me. Even though he took more severe injuries, he indisputably won.

"I yield," I said quickly. He immediately put the blade away and untangled our wrists so he could heal his arm.

"That was really good, Kushina. Not even sensei can reliably tell when I use that genjutsu."

I beamed in pride.

"I'm going to bolt before your classmates try to catch me. See you later, Kushina." He kissed my forehead before running off. A few younger students tried to follow him, but Kichiro was fast when he wanted to be.