Gender Bender Naruto: The Series
By: KioKat
Summary: We all know Naruto, the #1 knucklehead, loudmouth ninja, right? Well, what if He had been a She? What if the whole Naruto world had been flipped around – the kunoichi now shinobi and vice versa? Join us on the adventure of a lifetime with Uzumaki Nariko, Konoha's #1, knuckleheaded kunoichi!
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Chapter 17: Kazue
(Completed: 11-14-10)
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"So, how long are you nin hanging around?" Tazuna questioned as they sat around the dinner table that evening.
"Does it really matter?" Toshirou replied with a sigh. "They know the truth, so it's not as if we need to run them off for fear they'll find out..." The man grimaced slightly at the very idea, having been very unhappy with the plan when they had first thought it up, and thus, quite relieved that they no longer had a reason to put it into action.
"Just curious," the elderly man shrugged. "I actually wouldn't mind a few extra hands at the bridge..." He eyed Seiichi as he said this, earning only a narrow-eyed glance from Sakaye as Nariko was too engrossed in consuming her meal to notice.
"I didn't pay them for that," Toshirou cut in, eyebrows drawn down firmly. "Don't use them. Besides, I'm sure they're much too busy training to work with you anyway."
"Actually," Kairi piped up, "that doesn't sound like a bad idea. I actually know of a certain young shinobi here who could use a little something to do." She slid her gaze to Seiichi and smiled slightly beneath her mask.
Tazuna grinned at his son in response. "See? Perfectly alright."
Toshirou frowned, not nearly as pleased and fairly uncertain by the idea. "Are you sure?" the man questioned the jounin. "I mean, there's really no need..."
"Don't worry; it won't cost extra," Kairi reassured him, sensing his underlying concern. "Like I said, it would certainly give Seiichi something to do. I'd rather him helping your father than sitting around here or watching his teammates train."
"Excellent!" Tazuna said before his son could protest again, earning him a glare from said son. "We'll start tomorrow!"
The pinket gawked. "Wait, what? Don't I get a say–?"
"Nope!" his silver haired jounin interrupted cheerfully.
Thus, how Seiichi came to be sweating profusely and panting for breath as he leaned heavily against the wooden railing of the partially-built bridge, needing to take a break from helping to lug lumber and pound nails.
'None of our D-rank were anything like this,' the pink-haired genin thought helplessly, slumping against his current means of support almost bonelessly.
And they weren't even halfway through the day yet...
"Not bad for a kid your age," Tazuna said as he came up beside him, clapping the boy's shoulder and nearly sending his newest worker toppling to the ground.
Seiichi winced as his muscles protested the older man's action. "Uh, thanks... I guess..."
"Mm-hm, no problem," the bridge builder replied, wiping his face with the towel around his neck. Once he had finished, the elder leaned back against the railing as well to look over his half-formed bridge. "So, why aren't you training with the other two? You finish early or something?"
"Yeah, actually," the pink-haired boy grinned, perking up slightly at the man's inquiry. "Sensei had us do this special exercise, and I got it first try."
Tazuna raised his bushy eyebrows and flicked his gaze back towards the genin. "Really? Huh, not bad... Was it hard?"
Seiichi shifted against the rail, chest swelling with pride. "Well, for me it wasn't," he answered honestly, "but Sensei says Nariko and Sakaye-chan are probably going to be at it for a few more days before they get it down."
A faintly sly smile slid across the older man's face. "Sakaye-chan, huh? That's the dark-haired one, right? The one with the annoyed look on her face?"
The red-clad genin blinked. "What? Oh, uh, yeah. Yeah, that's... Sakaye-chan." He flushed at the man's emphasis on the suffix, fairly certain of what the man thought was implied with it.
"Huh," Tazuna nodded with a grin. "Nice choice; she's pretty."
"Er... yeah... thanks..." Seiichi mumbled, hunching his shoulders slightly and feeling a bit uncomfortable.
The elderly man seemed not to notice as the corners of his lips quirked up, and he chuckled as he remembered his own days as a boy. Oh, how that brought him back...
"Tazuna."
The bridge builder returned from his reverie to frown at the man before him. "Giichi? What is it?"
The worker remained silent for a long moment, and Tazuna narrowed his eyes.
"Well, spit it out then," Tazuna grumbled. "You can't have come to just stare at the ground."
Giichi's lips pressed together. "I want out, Tazuna."
Seiichi's eyes widened, and he snapped his olive orbs to the elderly man by his side, the bridge builder having grown quiet, his expression suddenly dark and unhappy.
"Oh," Toshirou's father replied coldly. "I see." He then shut his eyes and shrugged. "Well, go on then. I don't need cowards on my bridge."
The other man gritted his teeth. "It's become too dangerous, Tazuna! If we keep this up, Gatou will have us all killed!" His expression softened slightly. "Think of your family—your son, your granddaughter..."
Tazuna said nothing, and after a long moment, Giichi sighed.
"...I don't know about you," the worker finally spoke again, "but I actually care if I die."
And without waiting for a response, Giichi left.
The pink-haired genin stared after him with a frown.
"...Tazuna-san," Seiichi said softly. "Why is it so important that you complete this bridge?"
The elderly man glanced at him and, after a moment, sighed. "Our land has never been very rich, but it once was more prosperous than this. We gained our money through trade, but when Gatou came, he took over all that and completely limited us, made us powerless so we could reach no one. Because of that, our people have become miserable and hopeless." He turned back to the bridge stretched part way across the water. "Once this bridge is built, it won't matter that Gatou controls the sea. This bridge is our hope... We need it."
Seiichi stared mutely past the piles of lumber, past the unfinished overhang of the partly-constructed platform, on across the waves to the dark mass of land beyond. For a minute or so, the two simply looked on at the construction, the vital key to the Land of Wave's freedom, and in that silence, they understood.
No matter what, the bridge had to be finished. Nothing could stand in the way of that.
oxoxo
More honestly, though, someone could. However, he refused to dirty his hands himself and his current employed assassin was under bed rest, much to the man's displeasure.
Gatou clenched his jaw angrily as he paced in his office, ignoring the two samurai that, so far, had done him no good. The businessman cradled his wrist, the one that damned brat of Yuzuna's had nearly broken.
The thought made a vein at his temple throb and his pacing became more furious in nature. Damn that nin, damn Yuzuna, and damn shinobi in general! They were nothing but trouble—or had been for him. Damn that son of Tazuna's for hiring those god-damned bodyguards of his. Whoever the hell they had been, they had put the so-called "Demon of the Mist," his hired help, out of commission! At this rate, he would never get anything done. It was only dumb luck that Tazuna was losing men by the day and that that had greatly delayed him in his work on the bridge. Without that circumstance in Gatou's favor, who knew how close Tazuna would be to finishing by that point.
The short businessman narrowed his eyes, nostrils flaring. He couldn't allow that to happen. That bridge would mean his end if it were to be completed, and he was getting a little... attached to the water-bound country.
Gatou smirked at the thought and snickered softly. He would soon show them what it meant to tempt fate and defy Gatou a second time. Funny; he thought he had given a perfectly good demonstration of that a year ago, but the lesson appeared not to have stuck.
With a dark grin, the man finally seated himself in his chair.
Maybe he would try that public execution again.
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In a brightly lit, unbearably sunny bedroom, Isano wept.
The girl's breath hitched as she clutched the photo in her hands tightly to her chest.
"Mama..." she whimpered, hot tears rolling down her cheeks.
"You are so brave…" came the soft whispers of a far off memory. "I will always be here for you."
The girl sobbed and curled into herself as she lay on her bed. Hunching her shoulders, she turned her face into the blanket.
"I will always be here for you..."
"Liar," the child whispered, voice tinged with heartbreak and betrayal, and she cried harder, the sound smothered by cool, white cloth, in a too-sunny bedroom that mocked her with its light.
Outside, in the hollow, empty corridor, a figure stood, silently listening to the horrid sound of choked and muffled tears. Gently, he placed his forehead against the wall, eyes tightly shut against the pain of hearing the child's wounded cries.
After one, long moment, he quietly walked away.
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"Er, Seiichi-kun, are you okay?" Nariko inquired over dinner, blinking at her pink-haired teammate.
The boy, who lay slumped across the table, suppressed a groan, feeling his muscles twitch with the exertion of the day. 'That's the last time I let Sensei sign me up for anything...' the boy silently swore, painfully pushing himself in to a sitting position.
"Yeah, fine," he said through a grimace, meant to be a smile, and tightly gritted teeth.
Tazuna grinned and chuckled at the boy's discomfort, though a strange fatigue seemed to lurk within his eyes.
Toshirou hated seeing his father tired.
The dark-haired man observed Tazuna with a frown, taking note of the elder's slumped shoulders, his weary eyes, the wrinkles of his leathery skin that seemed to grow deeper and deeper each day, and his spiky hair, which the younger man swore had not been so gray a year ago.
Toshirou's fingers tightened on his chopsticks and his lips pursed. It upset him to see his father so completely exhausted or to view the helplessness he sometimes saw reflected in the elder's dark eyes when he thought no one could see. Toshirou knew his father kept it hidden from his men—he was losing enough even with that seemingly-absolute and stubborn belief in the bridge he held and spoke of so often—for it was only the strength of their leader that kept those workers who had yet to leave from following in their former co-workers' footsteps. Toshirou was well-aware that should they ever see such hopelessness reflected in Tazuna's eyes that they would likely drop their tools where they stood and walk away without another word.
That said, Toshirou had a good idea of why his father seemed especially tired that night.
"You lost another one, didn't you," the bridge builder's son said quietly, the inquiry more a statement than a question.
Nariko blinked in confusion and Sakaye paused in her meal, but Seiichi, recalling the scene of earlier, suddenly sobered and lowered his gaze, understanding what the dark-haired man meant.
Tazuna simply removed his glasses and rubbed at his eyes, sighing aloud. "Giichi left today."
"Why?" Toshirou questioned, expression unreadable as he stared down at the chopsticks in his hand.
The elderly man quietly observed his son for a moment, well-aware that he knew the reason. However, the elder went on to answer anyway.
"Same as the rest," Tazuna replied. "They're afraid of Gatou."
A pregnant pause consumed the table.
Toshirou then turned to Kairi, eyebrows furrowed. "If... or when that woman, Yuzuna, comes back..." he said slowly, eying her carefully. "Who will she come after? Me or my father?"
The masked kunoichi sighed through her nose. "Well, Gatou had originally intended to go after you because you were an easier target than your father, you being on the road alone—or so he'd hoped—and a little more accessible. However, now that you and your father are on equal standing, being here in the village, Gatou will likely forgo you completely and send Yuzuna to assassinate your father."
Lips pressed tightly together, Toshirou glanced at his father, before silently turning his gaze to the table before him.
Tazuna released a heavy breath. "Well, then, I suppose I have that to look forward to, now don't I?" he laughed, though the sound seemed strained and forced.
Toshirou suddenly lifted himself up, palms braced upon the table and shoulders hunched, as his head dipped just enough for his bangs to shadow his eyes.
"Dad..." he began in a low, solemn voice. Pausing momentarily, the man seemed to struggle for a moment, but his shoulders hunched further and his jaw clenched with determination.
"I ask as your only son that you discontinue your work on the bridge," he finished quickly but firmly, though he refused to meet his father's gaze.
Chopsticks clattering to the table, the elderly man whipped his head towards his son, expression warped with anger and disbelief. He, too, braced his palms on the table and glared at his son.
"How– how could you ask such a thing?" the bridge builder growled, aghast that his son would even think to suggest he do what so many of his men had already done. "You know how important this bridge is to the Land of Waves, to our people!"
"There are other, capable people–" Toshirou argued.
"Who?" Tazuna roared, furious. "Who do you suggest is gonna step up if I back out? The only reason those men have stayed was because I took a stand!"
"You could die!" his son protested, expression tight. "Gatou won't stop until he's sure that bridge will remain unfinished. Already he has shinobi after you!"
"I knew the risks when I took on this job," the elderly man replied, eyes narrowed. "This bridge means everything to this country, Toshirou. With it, people have begun to hope again. You want me to let Gatou steal that away a second time?"
The dark-haired male went tense.
"Don't you dare bring that up," Toshirou warned.
Tazuna ground his teeth in frustration. "It's been a year, Toshirou. Do you really think Kazue would have wanted this?"
"Dad!"
Isano released a sudden, unexpected sob, and the surprised Squad 7 watched as she shoved herself from the table and took off down the hall.
Face darkening with a fury that seemed very uncharacteristic of him, Toshirou glared at his father, teeth tightly clenched together. "Dad... You know better than to mention her around Isano."
"And you," Tazuna retorted angrily. "That's unspoken, right?"
Toshirou's jaw tightened as he glowered at his father, growing silent.
The bridge builder seemed unfazed, meeting it with his own stern, unyielding stare. "It's a truth you have to face, Toshirou. Do you really think Kazue would have wanted any of this? No, I don't just mean the state of this land, though she would have been devastated to see that as well, but do you really think she would have wanted to see either of you like this? Don't give me that look," the elderly man snapped at his son's dark gaze. "Don't you think I miss her, too? Do you think it didn't hurt me to lose her? Do you think I enjoy seeing my son and granddaughter suffering?..."
The table grew quiet once more.
"Who's Kazue?" Kairi inquired after a minute or so, her single, visible eye observing the two men carefully.
"...my wife," Toshirou responded, finally relinquishing the angry glare directed towards his father to return his gaze to the table again. "She died last year."
Nariko blinked and furrowed her eyebrows at the older man. "What? But I thought you said... when Isano was a baby..."
"That was my first wife," he explained quietly. "Isano's mother."
Tazuna glanced sharply at him. "Kazue was just as much Isano's–"
"I didn't say she wasn't, Dad," Toshirou interrupted, his dark eyes suddenly pained, and he shut them, inhaling deeply.
Sensing the questions that still lurked within the nin's eyes and those of her students', Tazuna sighed. "It started a few years ago, when Isano first met her..."
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The picture stared at her from its place on the bed, the very bed she had sobbed in earlier that day, in the very bedroom that had so recently mocked her.
Isano hiccuped, the image blurring, as her lips trembled. She stumbled forward and grabbed the frame, gripping it tightly in her small fingers. With a shaky hand, she traced the glass, digits trailing along the figure of her father, her grandfather, her grinning, happy self, before finally halting on the one she clutched to so fiercely, the woman with that brave, bright smile, who had held her so close and promised to stay...
With a fierce sob, the dark-haired child flung the picture from her, back on to the bed, her small form shaking with the storm of emotions she had been trying so hard to block and shy away from. For a long, tense minute or so, she glared at the image, breathing ragged.
Suddenly, the enraged scowl morphed into a miserable grimace as she fell on to the soft comforter and wept.
"I almost forgot. I almost forgot," she cried unhappily, face buried in the bed.
Against her will, the memories she had desperately worked to force from her mind rose again once more.
oxoxo
"Chicken!"
"Baby!"
"Scaredy cat!"
The tiny, dark-haired child sobbed at the jeering laughter and cries of the other children as she clung even more tightly to the wooden post, cheeks wet with tears. She turned her face away, burying it in the pole, in a desperate attempt to ignore them and block out their taunts.
However, the sudden hand grabbing hold of her dress wouldn't allow it, as the smirking boy it belonged to tugged with what seemed to be a cruel earnest to her, so as to force the girl into the water with him and the other children.
The young Isano cried out, kicking helplessly at the older boy and struggling to escape. Her small limbs squeezed the post even more firmly as she continued to weep, the frightening dark waters churning below her in a menacing manner, causing her to cry harder and work more desperately to escape his hold.
"Hey now, stop that!"
The boy blinked in surprise at the sudden shout and turned to look at its source, fingers loosening in response.
Feeling the lax in his grip, Isano jerked away from him, quickly clutching the pole once more and sliding down to wrap her legs around it as well, so that she might avoid the previous incident. Eyes shut tight, she pressed her face against the wood once more, trembling slightly.
With relief more than confusion, she heard the figure speak again—a woman, it sounded like—lightly scolding the boy for his actions and the children for their words.
"That's unnecessary, don't you think?" came the voice. "If she doesn't want to swim, she doesn't have to. There's no need to grab at her like that, you hear?"
Isano listened, without opening her eyes, as the woman sent the children off, the splashing of the water indicating what she assumed was their reluctant departure, if the fading grumbles meant anything.
With ragged, quiet breaths, the dark-haired child continued to crouch upon the dock, pressed as closely to the post as she could manage. She inhaled sharply and tensed as she heard and felt the tap of sandals on wood that meant some figure, whether it be the woman or a child who had lingered behind, drawing closer and closer to her. On sensing their presence behind her, Isano dug her fingers into the short pole—so deeply, in fact, that she felt the threat of splinters pressing into the vulnerable skin beneath her nails. Her body shivered with fear at the thought that it might be the boy of earlier, and every muscle went taut at the light touch on her shoulder.
"Hey, it's okay," the earlier voice said soothingly. "They're gone now. No one's going to hurt you..."
Isano clutched the post, silent and still. Then, slowly, she shifted her head to peer at the woman with one eye, the other side of her face still pressed firmly against the wood.
A young woman, her dark hair pulled into a high ponytail, grinned at her, the two strands before her ears dangling by her chin. A light-colored sash bound itself about her head, the ends knotted together over her right temple, and two wide bandages adorned each cheek, a smaller, thinner one taped across the bridge of her nose.
The child stared quietly at her friendly, albeit strange, face and broad smile, blinking once.
This made the woman laugh, and Isano blinked once more, pulling herself away from the pole to observe her curiously. The woman did so again, and unable to help herself, the child giggled too.
The woman smiled again. "Ah, there we are. There's no more need for those tears, is there?"
Isano grinned slightly and shook her head, finally removing herself fully from the post and rubbing at her eyes. However, she shivered suddenly as a wind blew by, clutching her arms and reminded that the other children had pushed her in to the water twice before she had found safety in clinging to one of the dock's wooden poles. Her face wrinkled unhappily, and she sniffled.
Silently taking in the child's damp clothing and wet hair, the woman tilted her head. "You must be cold," she said gently. "I have a nice, warm meal waiting at home and I'm afraid I can't eat it all by myself. Would you like to share it with me?"
The dark-haired little girl paused for a moment, appearing to think it over."Daddy says I'm not supposed to talk to strangers," she finally said.
Eyebrows rising slightly, the woman smiled again, dark eyes shining faintly with amusement. "Well, you must have a very good daddy then to teach you that," came her light reply as she stood and held out her hand for the child to take.
Isano nodded and accepted it, curling her small fingers around the woman's own. "Yeah, he's the best."
The woman laughed softly to herself, leading the girl down the dock with her. "Oh, really? That's incredible. You must very lucky to have the best for your dad," the woman mused with a grin."I actually had a pretty great one myself..." She then glanced down at the younger, lips quirked up at the corners. "By the way, my name's Kazue."
The child looked up at the forever-smiling woman, hand held lightly in the woman's own.
"I'm Isano," she quietly replied.
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"So, why were you so frightened of the water?" Kazue questioned as they sat at the table in her small, but comfortable home. "It's a little cold today, yeah, but nothing really wrong with it..."
Isano paused in her sipping of the distinctly fishy soup and lowered her bowl, eyes dropping to the cream-colored broth.
Kazue watched curiously as the little girl's cheeks flushed with what appeared to be shame.
"...I can't swim," the child whispered.
Instead of laughing as Isano feared or gaping in shock, for it was indeed very unusual to hear of such from any person let alone child in the Land of Waves, Kazue simply nodded in understanding and said, "I thought as much." Then, before Isano could express her surprise at her reaction, the older woman looked at her, expression serious. "Would you like to learn?"
The dark-haired child's mouth fell open and her eyes widened, startled by the sudden proposition. However, she only hesitated briefly before nodding mutely.
Kazue grinned. "It's settled then. We'll start tomorrow, alright?"
Yet again that day, Isano couldn't help the curve of her own lips as she nodded once more. "Yeah. Okay."
oxoxo
Back in the present, the girl sobbed once more.
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"She pretty much became family by that point," Tazuna went on, continuing to detail the story to the carefully listening nin. "My granddaughter idolized her, followed her around everywhere. They really were quite a sight..."
"She fell in love with her," Toshirou said quietly, finally speaking up. "We all did..."
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"Ah, so you're the oh-so famous best daddy in the world."
Toshirou blinked at the grinning woman in bewilderment. "What?"
Kazue laughed softly, and the dark-haired man narrowed his eyes, eying the woman who had escorted his daughter home suspiciously.
She didn't look dangerous, he thought, but she dressed rather differently than the other women of the village with her knee-length black shorts and baggy, sleeveless shirt bound around the waist with a dark sash. He furrowed his eyebrows at the bandages wrapped around her shins and arms, ending below the curve of her shoulder and leaving her hands free.
"They cover the scars," she answered with a slight smile, having taken note of his stare.
Toshirou jerked his head up, faintly embarrassed to have been caught looking her over. He opened his mouth to apologize, but she simply shook her head.
"It's okay," Kazue said lightly. "I do look rather strange, don't I?"
Though he did not say it aloud, Toshirou completely agreed.
However, he didn't learn the reasoning for that strangeness until several encounters later.
"My father was a fisherman," Kazue said, walking alongside Toshirou.
Thrilled by her progress on learning to swim, Isano had invited Kazue to dinner, and unable to deny his daughter's pleas, Toshirou had allowed it, having gotten over his own initial misgivings of the woman. After the meal had been eaten and Isano had fallen asleep after spending an hour or so eagerly chatting with the older woman, Tazuna had suggested Toshirou walk Kazue home. Despite Kazue's protests that he need not go to the trouble, Toshirou had agreed and they had left out into the dark.
"What happened to him?" Toshirou inquired, noting Kazue's use of the past tense.
The woman smiled faintly and shrugged. "Storm came out of nowhere while he was out at sea when I was about 14. He never saw it coming."
"I'm sorry," the dark-haired man quietly apologized.
Kazue grinned at him. "Don't be. He died doing what he loved. That's enough for me." She shifted her head back forwards. "Anyway, I used to help him out on the boat. My mother died after having me, so he didn't have any sons to take over for him when he passed. Since I was available, I offered to help do it." She laughed. "He wasn't happy with the idea at first, but I insisted and he gave in."
"So... you're a fisherman?" Toshirou frowned, attempting to wrap his mind around the idea.
Kazue chuckled softly at his bewildered expression. "Of course. Someone had to do it after my dad died."
"And that's the reason for...?" the man trailed, glancing at the woman's strange attire.
This seemed to amuse Kazue for she laughed again. "Yes, that's the reason for my clothes. They're more comfortable and easier to move it." She then grinned wryly. "Besides, you'd be surprised how difficult it is to pull in a net in a skirt."
"And the bandages?..."
The dark-haired woman's expression sobered slightly, though she continued to smile. "I told you. They cover the scars, remember?" On seeing his puzzled expression, she elaborated. "Being a fisherman can be a tough job. Hooks are sharp and some fish have spines—in their fins and on their bodies. Then, there's the nets. The salt toughens the rope, and they're not exactly smooth, you know? They can leave their own cuts and wounds..."
Toshirou observed silently as she subconsciously held one forearm, running her worn fingers along the bandages there. The smile had faded, and her eyes stared at the darkness before her oddly, as if she were not actually seeing it.
Without realizing it, they had both halted and simply stood as they were on the dirt path, and without knowing why, Toshirou grabbed the calloused hand, impeding her from continuing the motion.
She blinked, startled by his action, and looked up at him.
"...Toshirou-san?" she whispered.
The dark-haired man observed her wordlessly, confused by his own actions, but strangely unwilling to release her.
When had that happened?
"Toshirou-san?"
When had it changed?
"Toshirou–?"
He still didn't know as he dipped his head down, but suddenly, he didn't care.
Isano loved her; why couldn't he?
"Toshirou-san..."
oxoxo
"A few months later, she officially became a part of the family," Tazuna went on, taking note of his son's silence and distant stare. The elderly man couldn't help the smile that tugged at his lips at the next memory. "Then, she became a hero..."
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"Someone help! Please, help!"
As the mother wailed helplessly, Tazuna's eyes widened behind his glasses at the sight of the woman's distress.
Far out in the churning sea, a tiny child desperately gripped a slippery rock, doing his best not to be swept out into the fierce, dark waters. His cries could not be heard over the howling wind of the arising storm, the one that had, presumably, brought him into his current predicament.
The elderly man flinched as the waves crashed furiously against the beach on which the distraught mother stood, and he pressed his granddaughter tighter to his leg, which she clutched within her fingers as she observed the scene with wide eyes, so as to make sure she did not lose herself in the crowd that had gathered.
"Please!" the mother pleaded once more, cheeks wet with tears. "Someone do something!"
However, the mutters of the crowd indicated the danger in doing so. The child was too far off and the sea too rough. Anyone who were to pursue a rescue attempt would only be swept away with the tide, never to be seen again and leaving the boy as stranded as before.
The woman sobbed, falling to her knees and burying her face in her hands.
Tazuna sighed and went to turn away, but as he did so, he caught sight of Kazue, who had been standing beside him, and the expression on her face. His eyes went wide once again and he opened his mouth to speak, but she took off suddenly before he could do so, throwing herself into the turbulent waves.
The mother cried out in shock and the crowd went into an uproar as Kazue forced her way through the dark waters.
"Mama!" Isano cried, black eyes round with fear.
The people clustered at the water's edge, alternately calling after Kazue and pleading she turn back and encouraging her as she drew nearer and nearer to the marooned little boy. The crowd held their breath with each wave that rose, throwing her out of sight, and exhaled once she came into view once more.
Finally, she reached the rock, and having managed to have taken hold of it, she pulled the child to her, the boy clinging as tightly to her as he had the slippery stone mere moments before. The crowd cheered her on as she pushed off and struggled her way back.
After several close calls and minutes that seemed like years, Kazue collapsed upon the beach, returning the sobbing child to his relieved mother, amidst the elated and amazed cries of the crowd, which she greeted with no more than a tired smile.
Barely acknowledging his granddaughter's departure, Tazuna could only stare awe-struck at the woman as she accepted Isano's desperate and delighted hug.
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"Kazue was proclaimed the heroine of our little village," Toshirou spoke up again, eyes shut. "We were... happy."
"Until Gatou came," Tazuna stated, suddenly looking weary and haggard.
Toshirou's lips pursed together, teeth clenching, and he turned away, shoulders tense.
"He took over then?" Kairi inquired quietly.
Squeezing his eyes shut, Tazuna removed his glasses and rubbed them with his fingers. "Yes... For the most part, at least."
"Most part?" the kunoichi questioned.
"We... didn't give in right away," the elderly man admitted. "Well... Kazue didn't."
Toshirou's breath suddenly released from him and his body seemed to collapse into itself as he buried his face in his hands. "Don't, Dad. Please, don't..." he begged.
"It happened, Toshirou," Tazuna said softly. "Nothing's going to change that."
"That doesn't mean we have to talk about it," his son said through gritted teeth, curling his fingers back into his hair.
"It's part of the story, Toshirou. It needs to be said... Perhaps you need to hear it said."
Toshirou went silent.
"What happened to her?" Kairi asked after a long moment.
Tazuna observed his son for a moment more, before turning to them, jaw working and tears suddenly forming in his eyes.
"Gatou killed her, before everyone," the bridge builder choked. "He made us watch her die."
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"I will always be here for you."
"I will always be here for you."
"I will always be here for you..."
"You're a liar, Mama," Isano whispered in the night.
"You are so brave..."
The little girl sobbed. "Such a liar..."
The sound of her mother's lies rocked her to sleep.
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Fun Facts:
– Yes, yes, I was so creative with this chapter title, but Kazue did take up a majority of this chapter, so it fits, doesn't it? I also needed to show to you exactly how important Kazue really was to them and the affect she's had on their lives. I feel this chapter explains more deeply why they, Isano especially, are the way they are today.
– I have to say that I greatly enjoyed writing the Kazue portion of this chapter. I felt like I was able to have so many liberties with it and I am pleased with how it turned out. I hope others enjoy it as much as I do.
– The romantic relationship between Toshirou and Kazue was inspired by Naruto: Innocent Heart, Demonic Blood, which I have mentioned before as being a written version of Naruto all the way to the Wave Arc. In it, a more romantic relationship was mentioned and implied between Tsunami and Kaiza and I liked the idea. It seemed rather fitting to me. Besides, Tsunami did introduce Kaiza as her husband when Sakura questioned who was missing from the photograph in the original.
– I was going to give the Kazue story its own chapter, but I didn't like the way it would have worked out. It seemed like doing so would give the story less impact if I waited until the next chapter to tell it, so I kept it here, making this chapter about 5700 words. This chapter would have only been about 2700 without it. That's too short, in my opinion.
– As of this chapter, the average word count for my chapters are 4580. The shortest is Chapter 4 with 3635 words and the longest is Chapter 11 with 6534 words.
– I promise I thought of Kazue teaching Isano to swim long before that filler episode came out in Shippuden, where Inari has a flashback in a flashback of Kaiza teaching him to swim. I swear. Look at the date of when this chapter was finished. WAY before it aired.