Life of a Ninja: Renascence
2. Preface 2: Development
de·vel·op·ment/dəˈveləpmənt/
noun
the process of developing or being developed
To others, those who watched him grow, Senju Tobirama was an odd child. With his spiked silvery-white hair, dull red eyed, and stoic face. He looked like the Nadaime Hokage, had the same name as the Nadaime Hokage, and he was a Senju, a clan they believed had only one member left.
They thought he was too quiet, too intelligent, too shrewd for his age. Children avoided him, adults didn't know what to do with him.
Not that this bothered him, Tobirama didn't care. He was still mulling over the situation he had found himself in.
He had been reincarnated.
As his own great-great nephew.
And he was six.
How the HELL did that work?
His six year old body was pathetically weak; he had no clan to train him from birth this time, and he had no excess to any training grounds. His chakra control had been shot to hell, he could barely preform a D-rank jutsu and any thought of trying a C-rank?
Nope, not a chance.
He visited the Senju complex whenever he had the chance, going through scrolls and books as he tried to understand what had happened in the forty years he had been dead.
His research had led him to discover that the Shinju clan was all but extinct, and the Uzumaki clan had been wiped from the face of the earth. There had been another war after his death, longer and worse than the ones before with even more casualties.
Then he discovered Uzumaki Nagisa, the only person left baring the name 'Uzumaki'. Her files had been blacked out, everything was suspiciously blank, and it didn't take long for him to discover why...
The adults of the village hated her, her birthday was October 10 - the same day as the Kyuubi attack - plus the fact that she was an Uzumaki and contained a ridiculous amount of chakra for six year old.
She was the new jinchūriki of the Nine-Tailed Fox.
He remembered seeing her around the orphanage as his new body grew, she had been a tiny thing craving for attention, with sun-kissed skin, golden-blonde hair, bright blue eyes, and three whisker-like marks on each cheek, complete with a face that could have made Hashirama-oniisan melt.
And she had vanished from the orphanage a month ago, none of the nurses talked about her, none of the children even thought about her.
It was like she had ceased to exist.
But here he was, staring at the small girl with blonde hair as she dug through the trashcans, covered in dirt and grime and who knows what else.
"What are you doing?" He asked, arms crossed over his chest as he leaned against the alley wall.
The girl let out a shriek of alarm, tumbling backwards onto the ground, blue eyes turning to him in alarm.
He felt almost guilty when she curled into a ball in an attempt to hide herself, possibly in an attempt to protect her vitals from blows.
"Calm yourself. I'm not here to harm you." She uncurled slightly at his words and peered at him with big blue eyes. "Are you hungry?"
She nodded furiously and Tobirama's lips twitched slightly. "I can get you some food and a bath. Would you come with me for it?"
She definitely needed a bath. And a change of clothes. Compared to his clean sandals, black cargo shorts, and blue hooded vest, her clothes were barely visible under all the layers of mud caked on her body.
"My name is Senju Tobirama. I'm going to help you." He held out a single hand, pale red eyes boring into her bright blue ones.
With a hesitant nod, Uzumaki Nagisa moved towards him, her tiny hand slid into his and she nodded again, allowing herself to be led away from the darkness of the alley.
-((-))-
Unbeknownst to the two children, Fate smiled.
This was exactly why she had chosen Senju Tobirama to be reborn, something she rarely ever granted to anyone.
Uzumaki-Namikaze Nagisa needed Senju Tobirama to lead her back into the Light. To give her the love she so desperately craved; the love she needed to stay sane.
Senju Tobirama needed Uzumaki-Namikaze Nagisa to show him what it really meant to live. She would give him the childhood he was denied, and the love he had never found.
Their souls and fates were intertwined; Uzumaki-Namikaze Nagisa needed Senju Tobirama, and Senju Tobirama needed Uzumaki-Namikaze Nagisa.
-((-))-
As he waited for the rice to finish, Tobirama listened to the sound of splashing water originating down the hall.
His face was drawn and eyes downcast as he pondered what was going on. When he had entered the washroom to bring Nagisa a pair of clean clothes, Tobirama had caught sight of the blonde's back, which was covered in injures, old and new. Some healing and some were nothing but faded scars.
Tobirama recognized the worst of them; kunai wounds.
What was a five year old girl doing with kunai wounds?
He was pulled from his thoughts by the water turning off and a few moments later the Uzumaki girl trotted into the dining room.
She looked a lot better now that she was clean, wearing a pair of his old clothes consisting of a dark blue turtleneck, rolled up several times so her hands were visible, and a pair of dark cargo shorts long enough to reach her calves. Her feet were bare and her blonde hair tumbled down her back in a knotted mess as she tried to wrestle a comb through it.
Tobirama let out a faint huff of laughter as she struggled and he moved forward, gently plucking the comb from her hands and, seating her at the table, he brushed through her long golden hair. He remembered doing this for Hashirama quite a few times, after he had grown his hair out his older brother had discovered that it needed to be brushed a lot, but, being the idiot he was, he always forgot to do so, or was simply too tired to attempt it.
"Why're you helping me?"
Shoving himself from his thoughts, as it would do no good to dwell on the past, Tobirama turned his attention back to the young girl seated in front of him.
"Because you needed help." The silver haired boy said simply, fingers carding through Nagisa's hair as he braided it and tied it at the end with a ribbon. "And when someone needs help, you help them."
Something he learned from his brother...
Nagisa stared at him, eyes wide and filled with awe and surprise, and Tobirama couldn't help but wonder just how many people had mistreated this little girl for her to act this way... So surprised when people offered her help.
"Have you ever had anyone help you before?" Tobirama asked skeptically, for his own selfish wish to find out if there had been anyone in the village he had given his life for that had even tried to help her.
She hesitated for a moment, mulling it over. "Inu-san, he saves me from the bad people. But he's not always around... The ramen man gives me food... Hokage-jiji visited me in the orphanage, but I haven't seen him for a bit... And Tobi-kun helped me too!"
So only three people had ever helped her, four if he counted himself.
Konoha had definitely screwed up when it came to this little girl.
Wait-"Tobi-kun?" He hadn't heard that nickname since his brother died...
Nagisa blushed, tugging on her braid as she averted her eyes. "I'm sorry... Does it make you angry when I call you Tobi-kun?"
Tobirama stared at her slumped shoulders and sad eyes before he sighed. "No, it's fine. You can call me Tobi... Nagi-chan."
He blinked. Where had that pet name come from? Was he somehow channeling Hashirama and idiosyncrasies? (He skillfully ignored the fact that, he too, had the habit of giving people he found himself caring for pet-names). But looking at the beaming smile that had stretched across Nagisa's face, Tobirama couldn't bring himself to regret it.
And, as it would turn out, he never would, because it was that day that that sunny little girl with the blonde hair, and eyes as bright as the sky, would become his whole world.
So, because of the high demand of continuing this story (I mean, wow. 16 comments telling me to continue, and in only 3 days too...), I decided to give you guys a little slack. Here's the second part of the preface. Next up comes the Graduation Exam and Mizuki(traitorous little bastard). I'm going to split my attention between Shinku Kyofu and LoaN:R, so I'm not really going to have a set update scheduled. When the chapter is finished, it's going to be posted.
Hope this is okay, I'm not very good at writing children, so things may seem OOC.
Warning: Nagisa is going to act OOC, she's not Naruto and she doesn't need the attention Naruto craves, she's perfectly happy with Tobi (her precious person). I'm going to follow cannon as well as I can, and I'm actually going to have Kakashi have more of an active part of Nagisa's genin years, he's not going to abandon her for Sasuke all the time like he did in cannon part 1 (seriously, though. What is with that?).
There's going to be a bit of Sakura!bashing, apologies to those who like her, but she's not going to be a big part of the story. She's not part of Team 7, and therefore is on one of the teams that failed. Sasuke's a little angst-y and will probably get punched in the face by Tobi when he finally gets tired of the Uchiha's bitching and insults toward Nagisa. Little Nagi-chan is going to be completely oblivious and Kakashi doesn't know what to do with them.
Thanks for the support!
Tempestas D. Uzu
UPDATE:
I got a comment asking if Kakashi will be like a big brother figure, and being protective of lil'Nagi. Personally I like the idea, I always have. So, yes, we will see a protective!big brother!Kakashi in the near future.
Team 7 will be made of two grumpy little boys who can't stand each other, a little ball of sunshine, and a sensei that just wants to hit his head against a wall (repetitively).
I've had some people asking about how Tobi and Nagi are the same age, and how Tobi was born while Minato was still alive... So I've made some profile-thingies
...
Uzumaki(-Namikaze) Nagisa
Age: 5-6
Birthday: October 10
Hair: Gold-Blonde
Eyes: Blue
Height: 3ft 3in
Father: Namikaze Minato (D)
Mother: Uzumaki Kushina (D)
...
...
...
Senju Tobirama
Age: 6
Birthday: February 18
Hair: Pale Silver
Eyes: Pale Red
Height: 3ft 8in
Father: Jiraiya
Mother: Senju Tsunade
