With a wild glint in her violet eyes, but the peaceful face of someone who methodically performs brutal murders every morning, Kushina grabbed a man and used him to hit several others. When around her was a circle of free space and a moaning mountain of formerly fighting shinobi, she jumped on the pile and put her hands to her mouth.
"Shiori-chan! Where are you?!"
"Kushina-san, I don't…" Aoba didn't think that he still had so much energy in his bones to so strongly slam his jaw. But then again, standing before the gaze of the redhead kunoichi even a corpse would do it with nothing more than a loud click.
Lilac eyes closed. Kushina tried to stop her imagination, so it wouldn't show her any amateur horrors on the inner surfaces of her eyeballs. Unfortunately, after they stumbled upon the body of the young Aburame, the woman's brain had been funding her marathon of endless terror, that deepened by every minute, which they didn't find Shiori. But the girl had to be there, somewhere. She just had to be. She couldn't be gone.
Then, from nowhere the redhead kunoichi felt a faint but no less familiar chakra heading north, and dashed for it as if chased by the devil himself.
Meanwhile, the smaller Uzumaki was experiencing dizziness and seasickness delivered in a single, compact, greenish package.
"Orochimaru-sama, please slow down."
"If you knew you're going to be sick, why did you eat all those ration bars?" asked the Sannin, running through the battlefield with two tiny bodies hanging on his back. After he found them among the reeds, he waited with the kids in their hiding spot until dawn came and the majority of the enemy's army was defeated, to take them to a medical camp. However, he didn't expect the necessity of enduring so many groans of misery from his little protégé along the way.
"But you gave them to me and I was…"
"Hungry – yes I know. You're always hungry."
Itachi was listening to this odd banter between his senpai and the scary man, who, to his astonishment, was in reality one of three legendary Sannins. His senpai had to be even more amazing than he thought to know a man like that. He glanced at the girl next to him. If not for the layers of dirt and dried blood on her face, a weak tint of red embarrassment would be visible despite her sickly green complexion.
"I'm growing Uzumaki. It's not my fault that we need more sustenance to pervade our chakra reserves. It's genetic."
The snake summoner had been deprived of the opportunity to express his opinions on the genetic of gluttony when something scarlet flashed before them.
Itachi blinked. A woman, who was his mother's old acquaintance from her kunoichi days was rather brutally hugging the toothless girl that was now changing color from greenish to purple.
"Oh, shrimp-chan, I was so worried. When I saw Hisako, I thought, I thought… I love you so much, dettebane! I don't even care if you're an insolent, devious oddball. You're my oddball and no one else – even Minato's; ok, maybe I can share with him but that's all. You don't need to worry any longer, from now on I'll protect you always, dettebane!"
"Excuse me, but I don't think she can breathe." Mumbled Itachi, interrupting the woman's logorrhea.
"Eh?" Kushina released her steel grip, focusing her attention on the second child, giving Shiori a moment to breathe. "And who may you be, little cute?"
"That's Tachi-chan." Explained Orochimaru. "Shiori-chan found him, and she's planning to keep him." He added with something between fascinated disbelief and horrified sadism.
The woman squalled, and in the next moment was showing her distinct affections by even more distinct force hugging two children at once.
"You two are so cute, I could eat you!"
"Please, stop it, Kushina-san. It's unsettling." Wheezed the reborn woman, but attaining no results she decided to use more direct means of persuasion. One small elbow hit square and fair in the face of the older Uzumaki. "Stop it, dammit! You're scarring him for life!"
Thanks to Shiori's counterattack the boy managed a single rational thought. The danger of the previous night wasn't over. Evidently maternal instincts weren't terrifying, making itself known just in his mother. Every woman was scared when her children were in peril, but they were even scarier, when after everything their kids were safe in theirs arms, ready for a very long lecture with a large dose of displaying disappointment and inducing guilt – rather worrisome fact.
"Itachi?"
The boy blinked. His father stood three steps behind the Sannin, face blank and composed as always.
"Otosama."
Now, it was Kushina's time to blink and open her mouth in bewilderment, the effect spoiled by Shiori's elbow still jabbing her cheek.
"Uchiha-san?"
"Uzumaki-san, Orochimaru-sama."
Orochimaru refrained from further recitation of the names of the people present, he already witnessed more than enough courtesy for someone standing in the middle of recent a battlefield.
"What are you doing here, Fugaku-san? I wasn't aware you were send here." He asked.
"I have come here for my son." Explained Uchiha, focusing his attention on the smaller kid, as if wanting to make sure that all these tons of mud really were hiding his son.
"Of course he's your son." The Sannin dragged his pained eyes from one child to the other. She just had to mix-up with Uchiha's heir. She just had to, because why the hell not?
"Next Uchiha, eh? Seriously, cousin, what about Obito?" Kushina's grin wasn't indicating anything good. "I thought you lovmph…"
The girl's elbow once again was used, this time to cork the insufferable woman's lips. First impressions were important; it was enough that she stood in front of the head of the Uchiha clan, looking like some swamp monster, which in addition reeked of stale cabbage, ash and blood. More embarrassment wasn't needed, thank you very much.
"Otosama, I was saved twice by s…" Itachi hesitated for a moment, feeling the girl's scornful gaze. Ah yes, she didn't want to be called senpai, right? "By Shiori-dono." He finished clearly pleased with himself.
Said girl was fuming. That kid had to be a hidden, sadistic jerk or a totally oblivious, sweet moron. There wasn't a third option, and from the previous two the reborn woman didn't know which one was worse.
"So this is the young fuinjutsu master Handa mentioned. I should have guessed that it would be an Uzumaki." Fugaku zeroed his hawkish gaze on the small redhead and slightly bowed to her. "Uchiha clan is in your debt, Uzumaki-san."
Shiori bowed back, not knowing what to say. It was one massive positive of Japanese-like culture in this world, bowing was always the safest option.
"Is uncle Handa alright?" asked Itachi.
"Yes, we have found him. He is in the camp under medical surveillance."
"Ehh, Handa-kun was wounded?" After several attempts Kushina managed to completely immobilize Shiori, freeing her mouth from the offensive elbow.
"He has a few broken bones and smoke poisoning but he will be alright." Explained the older Uchiha.
"Good, Minato would be crestfallen otherwise. But wait. Fuinjutsu master?" Kushina abruptly stopped smiling. "What have you done this time, Shiori-chan?"
The girl's cheeks puffed.
"I haven't done a thing. The building was burning so I used a vacuum seal to get rid of the oxygen and put out the fire. That's all."
That interested Orochimaru.
"So it works?"
"Of course it works. But way too much chakra is wasted on the activation loop and it's too hard to determine the range. We should…"
"Ok, I like this scientific mambo-jumbo like any other girl but I think that's enough for now." Instructed Kushina seeing Fugaku's growing curiosity regarding Shiori, who was just starting her normal unbearable for any normal person monologue. Drawing attention of major clans wasn't something her little cousin needed at the moment. "We should go back to the Village as soon as possible. This isn't the place for children."
Shiori wanted to notice that there weren't many things here they hadn't already seen, but exactly in this moment Itachi cuddled up to her side and squeezed her hand as if being afraid to let her go. The girl didn't know if he did it consciously, because the whole time he hadn't moved his gaze away from Fugaku.
The said man had to also notice it, because he only sighed (at least the reborn woman thought he did, because as is fitting for a true Uchiha, Itachi's father had only three facial expressions: blank, scary and scarier).
"Kushina-san, could you take Itachi with you? I should stay here and help."
"Actually," interrupted Orochimaru "I require your clansman assistance. Sharingan would be useful in the investigation."
"Of course, Orochimaru-sama" agreed Fugaku and once again turned to Kushina." I will send a message to my wife. She will be waiting for you at the gate."
After having said that, the two man disappeared in clouds of smoke, leaving the older redhead woman with two bewildered kids in her arms.
"Shall we go home now?" asked Itachi, not knowing what he should feel, after his father left him with this weird woman, just like that.
"Yeap, cutie-pie, we are going home."
"Kushina-san, I'm begging you. Don't jump."
"Will see what I can do, shrimp-chan."
Ω
To the reborn woman's utter disbelief, Kushina really avoided every unnecessary leaping whenever she could. Four hours later they were crossing the gate of Konoha no Sato without further adventures. The grownup Uzumaki hummed old lullabies the whole way but only Shiori lost her fight against exhaustion, falling asleep and waking up every now and then. The little boy was silent, and as glued to Shiori's side as at the beginning of their journey. Kushina chewed her lips to a chip, trying to stop her constant snickering. Poor Minato, first Obito and now Itachi. The blond man was going to have a stroke and then introduce some strict anti-Uchiha police in their home, after hearing about this new development. Oh, why she didn't take a camera. Not only would she have brilliant blackmail material on her devious cousin, but also something to traumatize Minato with. Pity.
"Itachi!"
Three pair of eyes focused on the running woman, who in a blink of an eye was next to them, snatching her son into her arms.
Shiori studied the boy with piercing scrutiny. Firstly, there was timidity, which turned into relief when the kid embraced his mum. Itachi bit his lips, closed his eyes and clenched all his muscles trying to stop the upcoming shakings. Unsuccessfully. The boy glanced at his new senpai and in instant his body was wracked by raw sobs, while he shook like a leaf. Recent fright consumed his every cell, swelling them with terror. One fat tear after the other gave rise to a whole river, accompanied by heartbreaking whimpers and even a few hiccups.
"Oh my God!" Kushina panicked, throwing her arms around like a fish flung on a land. "A second ago he was ok, I swear, Mikoto-san! I don't know what's happened, dettebane!"
"It is alright, Kushina-san. Thank you." Assured the black-haired woman, too focused on her terrified son to notice anything else.
"Well, then… bye!" squeaked the older Uzumaki and in one powerful jump, found herself on the roof of a nearby building with a slightly green but still evidently pleased Shiori.
"What, the hell, have you done to him?" Kushina's glare was nearly animalistic, especially with that sneer and fact that she was holding Shiori by her dress collar like some misbehaving kitten.
"What?"
"Don't try your what with me, pumpkin. Itachi-chan was alright until he glanced at you. Then he started crying."
"And how exactly is that that my fault?"
"I don't know, that's why I'm asking! And don't even start to pitch me an excuse. You have that smug smile, glittering eyes and dimples in your chubby cheeks. You made him cry. I donk know how and why, but you did. I thought Itachi was your friend, Shiori-chan. You can't upset your friends, dettebane!"
"I didn't upset him, Kushina-san. Besides, not every tears are wrong. He's a traumatized kid - he should cry, its healthy."
Kushina hesitated, what happened rather often when Shiori mentioned subjects that had no right to be discussed by any five-year-old. She ran a hand over her dirty face, as if kneading the invisible dough of her thoughts.
"Then what about you?"
"I'm afraid I don't understand, Kushina-san?" To that one sentence Shiori wove expression of someone who falling into a chasm, has to stop and ask for the way down. Such imbecility on her face was highly disturbing.
"You're impossible, you know that?"
"But how can I be impossible when I exist?"
"You, you… No dango for a week!"
"What?! But Kushina-ne-chan! You can't punish me because I'm cleverer than you!"
"Then watch, dettebane!"
Accompanied by similar bickering, the two Uzumaki reached home and their living room, where Minato sat on the sofa. In the first impulse Kushina wanted to jump on him and kiss him senselessly, but luckily Shiori's demands for right of first bath stopped her enough to actually look at him.
She didn't like what she saw.
The love of her life sat hunched as if wanting nothing more than disappear. His golden locks were in total disarray, as if not wrenched only thanks to more overwhelming need of using his hands to cover his face or punch something. Considering that now Minato was hiding his face, and his knuckles were all red, he probably did both. There wasn't much what could put him in this state, and the woman was afraid to think of any of them. She put Shiori down and carefully walked over to the couch.
Meanwhile the reborn woman just blinked. Despite the warmth her skin was icy, all blood averted her brain, making it numb. After a moment and a few soft sobs from the adult's realization hit her - "freeze" wasn't going to work here anymore. Apparently "escape" was the new directive of the day, but it wasn't slow like a conscious choice. It was abrupt and so her legs exploded into swift, unyielding motion. The bathroom's door shut after her with a soundless click.
She took a long bath, soaking knee deep in silence. Water dripped from the tap, each drop echoing around the room like a cymbal, yet she didn't move to stop it. From the window were emanating sounds of traffic and bird songs, by now it had to be late afternoon, but today there was no Kushina's usual hustle and bustle when making dinner. Nor Minato's stories about his team's new craziness. It meant that the reborn woman's fragile happiness was over, before it really had a chance to take root.
She came out, dried herself, changed into new fluffy, pink pajamas and flitted into her bedroom where she buried herself under the covers and fell asleep. In the middle of a night she was awakened by the bending of the mattress.
"It's Obito. I'm sorry, Shiori-chan. I'm so sorry."
Frustration boiled inside of her so much, the girl thought she might explode. She wanted to shout, had a tantrum and beat her hands in his chest like a toddler. She wanted to vent and let it out, but it would mean saying words that were hurtful. It would be so easy to be cruel. In her previous life the reborn woman wanted to unsay things many times, take them back. She slowly learned to control her temper but now she didn't give a shit.
"You were late again, weren't you? The Yellow Flash never is on time when it really matters. Never."
He was gone instantly.
Ω
There was no sound in the house, yet everyone was moving. Moving but not talking. Kushina walked back and forth in the kitchen, making more food than any army could eat. Minato was doing small repairs in the flat that he had been meaning to do for months, but somehow now they were more pressing than ever.
Shiori stayed in her room, trying to drown in books but was unable to read even a word, foot tapping up and down like some idiotic clockwork toy. She royally screwed up, there was no lying there. She had been heartbroken, yup - well, she still was – but hurting Minato was counterproductive, no matter how good it felt. She needed to apologize.
Dressing up she couldn't get rid of the thoughts that it all was so stupid she had no words for it. How stupid all the big and mighty of this world had to be, to participate in a war from which none would come out victorious? How stupid it was to send a bunch of kids on a nearly suicidal mission? How stupid Obito had to be to kill everyone because of Rin? Wait there and go back!
Half of the head full of rosy hair stuck in the neckline of a blue dress. The most stupid was no one else but she! From what the reborn woman remembered Obito hadn't gone all gaga by just sitting in that cavern with Madara. The turning point was Rin's death, so if he won't see it…
The girl put on her clothes and like a bullet burst out of her room. There was no time for grief if there still was a chance to fuck up the Almighty Plot's shit, but for that she needed Minato's and Kushina's cooperation.
The blond man tensed, crouching behind the couch and screwing a power outlet to the wall, when he heard a pair of small feet stopping behind him. With a screw in his mouth he turned to meet those scornful, gold eyes. To his surprise they weren't full of disdain nor disappointment. Shiori's gaze was hot like a burning sun and deadly serious. She clapped her hands together and bowed.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said all these things. It wasn't my place, nor had I any right to judge you. My grief was talking through me. I don't blame you, Mini-nii."
Kushina could only smile watching how Minato embraced the child. Shiori's words devastated him yesterday. He was so full of grief, the woman thought it would consume him completely, living nothing but empty shell. It was good to see these two together could get up so fast and get going.
Ω
From what Shiori found out, the Kanabi disaster ended just like she remembered. Obito was crushed under a gigantic rock and Kakashi gained super-uber-eye-mod and mental scar for life. Rin went out of it without a scratch, as befits a typical, annoying heroine. But even if the outcome remained unchanged, the road to it was slightly different, giving the reborn woman an undeniable evidence that the Almighty Plot was a true, stubborn bitch.
The girl had no idea how and why there were six hostile shinobi when she remembered far less, and how it happened that Kakashi lost his right eye and not the left, but neither changed the fact that this world somehow worked out everything exactly as it should have been. The knowledge woke in her something akin to primal terror nearly as frightening as resolve of her cousin that was now dragging her to the hospital.
It turned out that Konoha's health care package didn't cover cases of mental trauma; and Yamanaka clansmen, who were sometimes working as resident psychiatrists, were too busy digging in the brains of war prisoners, to bring out one silver-haired jonin from abyss of apathy. Nothing could lift his spirit, so Kushina and Minato decided to take a different tactic. They wanted to annoy him until he would actually do something more than staring at the ceiling.
And who was the most irritating person in Kakashi's book? Yeap.
Kushina slightly opened door to a room, where the teenager recently resided, giving Shiori a chance to glimpse inside. Limp pile of covers and human parts lay on the hospital bed. But emanating from it an aura of doom apathy and the fact that the boy even in that state could easily kill her, wasn't her main problem (actually she was happy to troll him especially thanks to this factors). That tittle belonged to a bunch of animals in the room.
"I cannot go there and upset him like that. There are puppies, none of you mentioned puppies!" complained the toothless girl in a half-whisper. "Now I'm feeling bad. Why the hell am I feeling bad? What is happening to me?"
"Maybe you're growing up?" Kushina suggested mockingly.
"I seriously doubt it."
"Just go there and be yourself. That'll be more than enough." Snickered the woman shoving the younger girl forward.
Shiori cursed, skipping a few steps by the force of momentum, before she halted right in front of the biggest dog she had ever seen. It reminded her more of a calf than a dog, especially the young one. It could bite her head off not even trying.
A wrinkled eyelid went up, showing the pitch black pearl eyeing the child. The dog sighed opening its snout and licking itself, putting the tongue to its nose. It was enough to say Shiori was grossed out.
Meanwhile a few feet away on the bed, Kakashi was once more reliving in his mind the last minutes of his best friend. The memory made him feel dead inside. The only thing left was fear, fear of ending the same way. Obito, contrary to him, was a good boy and he didn't earn what he got; the young jonin couldn't imagine how anyone could deserve an ending like that.
It was Kakashi's fault and now the masked boy was afraid to get up and meet the next day. How could he when Obito had none left? Only he hadn't been allowed to be afraid, to feel guilty and dwell on one insignificant lost life. He had to be soldier and killer, when Obito was just a simple clown who helped others. There was a point in life of Konoha's shinobi after which the famous will of fire was expected, regardless of age. He reached it far faster than his peers. A few too many promising qualities and his childhood vanished far before Kakashi's teen years began. And so the son of the White Fang raised to the expectations; seeming to be as detached on the inside as he was on the outside, perfecting a mask of composure and competence. The person he presented was mature, talented and professional. In truth he was the same kid he was at five, finding his father's dead body lying in their kitchen in a pool of blood. His whole life was just a farce, a house of cards. Now, when the whole thing came apart, it revealed an abandoned boy - the boy who still grieved over the person he was before the world collapsed. Before he learnt that "forever" could be dreadfully short. Nearly as short as someone sitting on his bed.
Kakashi focused his one good eye on the small redhead suspiciously looking at Pakkun. The young pug was sniffing her, but not sensing anything suspicious, after a while went back to licking Kakashi's hand.
"Listen, Hatake-san," began the girl, massaging the bridge of her nose. "I don't even want to be here but Kushina-san made me, so I'll annoy you until you'll react or go grey. Wait, it's too late for that. Let's stay with becoming bald."
There was no reaction. The girl poked his cheek. Still nothing.
"I swear if you don't blink or something, I'm going to kiss you, smearing my salvia all over you."
There was no reaction even when she stopped a breath away from his forehead. Shiori had a feeling it was going to be really long visit. She toddled to his medical chart and started to study it but not seeing any significant test results she put it away.
"You know, without Tsunade this place is a mess. You should watch out or one day you'll end lacking a kidney or other sensitive part between your legs, if you stay here much longer."
Silence.
"You're a jackass, you know that, Kakashi-san?"
Even griever silence.
Shiori's headstrong determination showed itself when the redhead licked his face - only to suddenly start spitting in all directions.
"Don't tell me your dogs licked you before!"
The boy fulfilled her request speaking nothing. The girl growled and resigned fell on the mattress. After five minutes of counting panels on the ceiling (320 to be precise), she rolled over the bed.
Just as Kakashi felt the first wisp of breath on his neck, Shiori's hand moved around his middle, warm and soft. In a second her tiny body was molded to his own, sharing her body heat as easily as she shared her harsh opinions.
"Everybody needs a hug now and then but I warn you. If you tell anyone about it, I'll deny and give Gai-san a homing seal, so he will be always able to find you. You won't escape, ever."
"Something like that doesn't exist." Mumbled the masked boy under his mask, that was really well hiding his nervous lockjaw. No self-imposed silence was worth such visions.
"I would make it just for you. You should feel special."
Kakashi snorted and glanced at the forest of red hair with something balancing between curiosity and bitterness.
"I thought you liked him. How can you be so…?"
"Alive?" It was her time to snort. "Obito was one of few people I genuinely liked but he isn't here anymore, you can't change it. I already once lost my whole world but I had to get up. There wasn't another option, because life is always going on, no matter if you want it or not… And now after my marvelous pep talk, be a nice jackass, Kakashi-san, hug me and shut up."
He sniffed annoyed but buried his face in her locks, being careful not to hurt his bandaged eye. The reborn woman told him nothing but the truth. She lost everything when she died and nothing he might do could change Obito's fate. But she wasn't the same, she had knowledge and so she started plotting. It was on her head to make sure that everyone she cared about were coming home.
Out of the blue something heavy jumped on her. Actually it was few somethings.
"Kakashi-san, why are your dogs attacking me?! Tell them to stop! They're licking me! Bad mutts! VERY BAD!"
Kakashi's laughter was heard on the entire floor.
OMAKE
20 years earlier or something like that; inn - somewhere in Fire Country
"It's my room, go somewhere else." Barked Jiraiya, seeing his dark-haired teammate laying down to sleep on a nearby futon. Why he had to share a room with this pompous ass?
"There is no place else. Sarutobi sensei told me to sleep here." Answered Orochimaru opening a sealing scroll. "I assure you, that perspective of sharing any space with you displeases me much more than it does you."
"You're too modest, snake-face. Don't underestimate your power to be a pain in the..." loud puff and cloud of smoke from the scroll interrupted him, revealing a bag from which Orochimaru pulled out a pillow. "What the hell is that?!"
"Pillow?"
"It isn't normal pillow!"
"It's my special nap pillow. Also pretty comfy. Several dozens of the finest gooses gave their all so I could snooze in comfort. DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT IT, JIRAIYA!" He threatened, seeing the boy getting ready to pounce.
In order to stand Orachimaru's company the hyperactive boy had to occupy himself. Somehow a simple card game seemed to be the safest option. As it turned out - not necessarily.
"Hurry up and discard before Shinigami will march in to take me!"
Pale boy blinked, lifeless like a bookkeeper in a cast.
"Very well." The white hand put his cards on the floor. "Gin."
"AGAIN?!"
"It hardly requires advanced mastery in differential calculus to grip a miraculous sequence of as, two, three. It would be 54 points; new record."
"Shut up and deal. I don't remember the last hand I've won."
"Seriously? It was so few I thought they would stand out in your memory."
"On the second hand I'll just read something before turning in." Mumbled Jiraiya, rolling to his futon and hiding behind a book.
"Ah yes, highlight of human culture - manga." Mocked the smaller boy.
"It happens to be my favorite!"
"What gin rummy is to games worth skills, manga is to literature. Therefore, I'll be merciful and share with you something civilized." He said, almost reverently pulling from the bag a gramophone and few discs. "I give you light in the darkness - opera".
"No way! I hate opera!"
"Closed mind is an empty mind, Jiraiya-kun. Just listen and I guarantee, you will be carried away on a majestic clouds of a musical ecstasy."
Orochimaru played his music and after first six notes Jiraiya wanted to throttle something. Preferably something effeminate.
"That chick sounds like banshee in a bear trap!"
Five minutes later Sarutobi Hiruzen was trying to understand, how in the name of First Hokage, in one moment he was admiring alluring feminine shapes through the hole in the fence, and in the next one, was watching as the inn they were spending the night was trampled by gigantic frog and snake, that now were trying to escape before equally gigantic snail.
His genins were hopeless. He had no idea what they could possibly grow into. Nothing good, that was for sure.
One omake as promised ^^ I don't know why, but I've always imagined Orochimaru as completely devoted musical nerd. And for the regular story, yeap Kanabi happened and now true scheming is going to begin. Also Uchiha family enters the stage so be prepared for more Itachi, and Shiori's attempts to make him behave like a small kid should.
Thanks for reading/following/favoring and so many great revives after last chapter. And enormous thank you for my fabulous beta, mrsmiawallace88 you're the best.