A/N: Light is shed upon Maiha's looks!
Uzumaki Kimihiro glowered with all of his might at Kaien, attempting to activate any residual kekkai genkai that might allow him to incinerate his brother with the power of his eyes. He was not happy his younger brother had decided to switch up the schedules of the raiding parties in order to force him home. As far as he was concerned, Kaien had been leading the clan admirably after he had spontaneously discovered some maturity after that Lava Release user permanently benched him from future raids and pillaging. There was no reason for his impertinent little brother to have forced him home, unless…
"Have you received word that something has happened to Chichi-ue or Kōsuke?!"
Kaien looked away from the papers he had been reading while Kimihiro had verbally lashed him to give Kimihiro a wry look from behind the clan head's desk.
"Nii-san, if that was the case I would simply have sent word of such while ordering you to return home. I certainly wouldn't have gone to all this trouble to force you to actually set foot in the compound."
Kimihiro grimaced at hearing Kaien sound so…adult. The brother he had grown up with had been shamelessly immature whenever he wasn't leading a raiding party, no matter how he or their father had tried to get Kaien to act like his future second in command. It may have been nearly eight years since he had been around Kaien, but he honestly hadn't thought he would live to see Kaien grow up.
In the two hours they had been secluded in the clan head's office –Kaien's office – he couldn't help but note the differences in his little brother.
He smiled less, smiles dimmer, lines of stern frowns and stress making inroads to where there had only been lines of laughter. He was intent on his paperwork, not shirking it or whining about how much he hated the "White Demons." He remained focused on his work, giving it the lion's share of his attention. Kimihiro felt his anger fade as he took in all these changes in his baby brother, distress setting in.
What had happened to Kaien?
Kimihiro started to ask Kaien when the office door suddenly opened, and he turned to see who would dare to enter the office while the acting clan was holding a meeting. The intruder turned out to be a pale preteen girl who swept into the office a solemn regality that contrasted her swift movement. Free flowing waist length hair colored lava red caught his eye with its bold color as it swished over a simple forest green training kimono, and Persian indigo irises focused on Kaien with an intensity Kimihiro hadn't seen in a preteen before.
"Ah, there you are Kaien. I was hoping you were here. My apologies for interrupting your meeting with an acquaintance, but Samuru's son, Seiya-"
Kaien groaned in pain as a hand came to massage a brow that had furrowed deeply when the girl had mention Samuru.
"And now Mito's about to see if she can't use him as a test subject for her fuinjutsu. I'll take care of it."
Kaien quickly rose from behind his desk and stormed over to the door, but he paused before leaving, carefully refraining from turning around.
"By the way, Kimihiro isn't an acquaintance. He's our eldest brother Maiha."
After detonating that explosive tag, Kaien charged off to go head off whatever disaster she had been talking about. Kimihiro was still frozen by the knowledge he was in the same room as the sister he had never met (his mother's killer) when she turned and addressed him first.
"I was wondering what Kaien was up to since he went and raised such a fuss over the scheduling. It was out of character for him to do so, but now I can see why."
She looked over him, her expression remaining coolly unperturbed in the face of meeting him for the first time. Kimihiro couldn't boast possessing the same calm, knowing he was visibly affected by learning who she was.
"Well, I suppose introductions are in order since you've never have had the fortitude to meet me or my sister. My name is Uzumaki Maiha, younger fraternal twin sister to Uzumaki Mito. It is an incomparable pleasure to finally make your acquaintance Uzumaki-san."
Kimihiro clenched his jaw in anger at her barbed words.
"How dare you address me in such a manner you-"
She raised an eyebrow at his words, interrupting him before he could finish.
"Murderer? Hardly. But it's nothing I haven't heard before."
Her mouth curved from its unaffected line into a tiny, vicious showing of teeth.
"Go on, call me whatever you wish– if you have the courage to do so. But considering how you have avoided your own home for nearly thirteen years, how you've shirked and abandoned your duties… I sincerely doubt you do, you craven wretch."
Each hissed word bit deeply, and Kimihiro's vision ran red as the monstrosity taunted him. He took a menacing step in it direction, wanting to intimidate it so it would stop hissing at him.
"Shut up. You have no right to talk when you killed Kaa-san. She is dead because of you. If you hadn't been born she would still be alive!"
Persian indigo irises stared flatly at him, and Kimihiro could see the malice and cruelty swimming in its dead eyes as it opened its mouth.
"Oh. Did I hit a nerve? You have my most sincere apologies Uzumaki-san."
It began circling him as he trembled under the weight of his rage.
"But I wonder what nerve I struck. Is it jealousy from that Haha-ue chose us, chose to keep us while knowing she was likely throwing away her future with you and the others? Is it grief born from how she died before you could ever beg for her forgiveness for leaving her all alone?
Or is it guilt that has you trembling like some stripling Uzumaki-san? The guilt you feel over abandoning Haha-ue while she was pregnant. The guilt from shunning her when she needed your support and love, for letting her die alone knowing that you weren't coming."
Kimihiro let out a strangled cry of rage,unable to take any more of its lies(truths) and aimed to strike it with all his might so it could no longer hiss at him. It couldn't dodge his blow, but Kimihiro was confused when his strike passed through its skull without the resistance flesh and bone should give. It bared its teeth again with an unholy, savage glee as he realized,
"This is an illusion-"
Suddenly all of his limbs went dead and limp, completely unresponsive to his will, and he crashed to the floor. The pain of hitting the floor without doing anything to catch himself, and the burst of pain from his nose breaking yet again, shattered the genjutsu he had been caught in. It rolled him over onto his back with a savage kick to the ribs, and Kimihiro saw it had been behind him. It was the same as it was in the genjustu, but it was only smirking faintly at him instead of baring its teeth.
"And to think some people claim genjustu isn't useful. Well Uzumaki-san, despite your attempt to end my life, I have spared yours. I've even refrained from crippling you in retaliation. Am I not a generous imouto?"
Its smirk faded back into the placid expression it had entered the office with, and it gave a small put-upon sigh.
"I suppose I'll have to go report this to Kaien, so don't move Uzumaki-san. I'll be back soon, don't you fret."
With that, it swept out of the office to the sound of his snarled curses.