Rengoku...
Kamado Akina’s POV
Surprisingly, Konoha looks… normal .
( Minus the giant wooden wall and the faces on the mountain. )
“ Whoa! This is Konoha!? ” Genya is thrilled , but I grab him by the back of his hooded coat before he can run too far from me, “ Mom, it’s huge! ”
“Big places mean you get lost easily.” I tell him, sharing a chuckle with Jiraiya before we both nod to the guards at the gate. “ C’mon , son, you know this much.”
“ Look at- ” Genya runs circles around us, for once acting his age, causing a lot of amusement for the people around us as he stares in wonderment through shop windows and drags me and Jiraiya over several times.
( We’re going to be so late for this meeting with the Hokage… )
“ Ero-sennin! ” A blonde boy yells, almost tackling Jiraiya, literally steps away from the Administration building, I laugh as Genya balks, and Jiraiya laughs as he throws him in the air easily. “ Are you back again?! Are we going on another mission again!? ”
“ Another? ” I ask warmly, “Jiraiya, is this the godson you spoke so highly of?”
“It is indeed, Akina-san!” Jiraiya laughs warmly, easily setting the boy on his feet as he stares curiously at me, “Akina-san, Genya-kun, this is Naruto Uzumaki! Naruto, this Akina and Genya Kamado! They’re some friends from out of town.”
He smiles warmly and bounces forward, immediately attempting to hug us.
“ Hi! Welcome to Konoha! Have you tried Ichiraku’s Ramen Stand, yet?! It’s AWESOME , dattebayo! We could have lunch now- ”
“Actually, we have a meeting now, Naruto-kun. I’m so sorry, sweetie.” I hug him back and ruffle his hair warmly with a soft laugh, “But maybe after, how’s that sound? All the ramen you can eat, even!”
“ You’re on! ” He shouts, enthusiastically, jumping up and fist-pumping excitedly as Genya side-steps a swinging foot. “ Hey , does Genya-Kun have to go to the meeting too?”
I look to Jiraiya, whose lips quirk up, but he shakes his head.
“Apparently not. Why ? You wanna drag him off into some good trouble, Naruto-kun?” I ruffle his hair again with a soft snort, and he cheers as Genya gives me a panicked look. “Try not to overwhelm my son, okay, Naruto-kun? Genya, honey, you can talk to Naruto-kun, you have a mouth.”
I manage to kiss the top of his head and shove some money in his hand before the blonde drags him off, shouting something about a tour and sightseeing as they go.
“Alright, now that the kids are thoroughly distracted,” Jiraiya seems amused by my son’s new - and incredibly public - traumatizing. “Let’s go introduce you to Tsuna .”
I roll my eyes.
“ Yes , Jiraiya-san.”
Senju Tsunade’s POV
( Why would Jiraiya want to bring an outsider to a debriefing involving the Akatsuki? Why would he recall the spy we implanted in the Akatsuki? Does this have something to do with Itachi Uchiha suddenly disappearing? Please, Susano’o, don’t tell me Jiraiya used Itachi as a spy… )
I keep my fingers steepled under my chin as I stare at the door to my office.
( As long as Itachi doesn’t walk through that door with Jiraiya, everything will be fine. )
“- can’t be that bad! She’s your Lady Hokage, after all!” Someone laughs, and it…
My eyes narrow as the door trembles, the seals - old, almost rusty , but trusted and replenished regularly, despite how finicky and cantankerous as they are wont to be - flare and almost sing as.
“ No, ” I state, the person in the doorway pauses slightly, their smile slipping a little, but… “ No. ”
“‘ No ’ what, Lady Hokage?” They ask warmly, smiling brightly, I notice a scar - three knotted, gnarled lines… claws ? Maybe… - slashed across their right cheek. “I haven’t even said anything.”
“Whoever you are, I don’t care what you have to say or offer - especially when you come here wearing a poor mockery of my dead grandfather, who was the Shodaime Hokage of this village.” I slowly stand up to snarl at them, but their face blanks, and I feel a soft flare of Mokuton in the air. “ You will leave- ”
“ Who do I look like? ” They sound desperate, and the hand they still have on the door digs in, nails biting into the wood as small shoots begin to bloom and flower. “ His name - this ‘Shodaime Hokage’ - what was his name? ”
I pause harshly, but Jiraiya steps up behind them.
‘ Ally’ ‘Trust’ ‘Continue plan’
Field hand signs weren’t meant for thorough explanations, but…
“His name was Hashirama, he came from the Senju clan.” My eyes narrow as they suck in a deep breath, quickly tearing their hand away from the door to shrug out of their katana holsters and their haori. “ What are you- ”
“ Is this the Senju clan mon? ” They hold up their haori - No. They hold up The haori.
“ Where the hell did you find that!? ” I demand,
“ I was found wrapped in it, on the steps of a shrine, ” The twin sister of Hashirama Senju explains, “ In another dimension, where I have lived for almost thirty-one years. My Name is Akina Kamado, and I am a Hashira, of the Demon Slayer Corps. ”
It took four hours to run her blood samples enough times for me to stop crying at the results.
But she’s home.
She’s home and I’m all that’s left.
She’s home and she has a son with her, she has other children she needs to return to, and I’m still all alone.
She holds me as I cry.
“ Why’s the Lady Hokage crying on Mom? ” Someone whispers,
“ Akina-san is related to her, we had to run the blood samples a couple of times to be sure. ” Shizune murmurs, “ Why are your hands covered in paint? ”
“ Naruto-kun has a death wish. ” They mutter, “ I never want to hang out with him again - he’s insane.”
I lean back, looking up at Akina, her dark brown eyes hold pain - like she’s losing a limb like she’s dying. I bury my face in her shoulder again and I hold her tighter.
“ I’m so sorry, ” I mumble against her,
“ You don’t need to apologize, ” She shushes me gently, “ At least you are still here. ”
“ But it’s just me- ”
“ Yes, ” Akina murmurs back giving me a gentle squeeze, “ It’s you , Tsunade. ”
I sob a little harder, clinging to her as tight as I can.
“ Tsuna, ” Jiraiya murmurs nearby, “ Akina-san is not going anywhere, not anytime soon at least. She has information we all need to hear, and you need to know who our spy is- ”
“ Just a little longer ! ” I beg, squeezing tighter, Akina makes a surprised noise, then places a gentle hand against my head, “ Please, she-Akina’s, she- ”
I sob .
When I finally managed to calm down a little , Shizune and Jiraiya managed to pry me off of Akina (she didn’t seem to mind the cuddles that much, strangely enough.) She settles down into the chair across my desk, and her son slinks up to her, looking both curious and anxious .
“ Mom ,” He gently tugs on her belt, she wraps an arm around his waist and drags him close with a heavy sigh, “What was that about?”
“It…” She closes her eyes and releases another deep, heavy breath, “Do you know the characters involved in Tanjiro’s name?”
Her son cocks his head, and Jiraiya goes still.
“He is called the second son , Genya.” Akina says gently, Genya blinks, then recoils in horror, “My parents were so, so happy that I was going to have a sibling, and everything went so, so wrong when we went to pay our respects at that damned shrine.”
She sags against him, and I share a look with Shizune as Jiraiya leans forward.
“Akina-san,” Jiraiya murmurs, “You have mentioned this shrine several times now - where is it?”
“In this world, I can provide you with a map to it.” Akina tells us plainly, “If you want to try and visit the one in mine, all you would have to do is walk through the doors.”
“You speak of space-time travel as if you have… regular experience with it.” Shizune shifts her weight nervously, Genya nervously grabs the straps on his mom’s shoulders as she throws her head back and laughs .
“I wouldn’t call it ‘ regular ’ ma’am.” Akina laughs warmly - like summer, like sunshine, like Obaa-san’s tea or Uncle Tobirama’s hugs - and she smiles with an easiness that comes with power , with danger. “But you’re close to it, at least. This isn’t my first time traveling between dimensions. There’s a… hm . Well, I guess if I have to explain it to you, I should know what groundwork has been laid down before me. Do you know where Rengoku Kyoujuro is?”
I share a startled look with Jiraiya, who has his jaw dangling near the floor as Shizune drops her clipboard on my desk in surprise.
“ Ah. The little spark has gotten into trouble yet again .” She sighs, rubbing her temples, and Genya looks amused and slightly more anxious. “ Can’t that child ever mind his business? Bless his bleeding heart, but it will drag him into hell one day… ”
“I…” I trail off, recalling the… abilities of… Rengoku-kun as he insisted he be called, and then, of course… “Are you sure you’re… associates ?”
“What has he done now ?”
“He tried to steal our Jinchuuriki.” I state, sharing a look with Jiraiya, “He…but if you truly come from a different dimension, then…what was he doing with Naruto?”
“Well, what’s a Jinchuuriki? Explain it to me like I’m… two .” She smiles easily again, calm and relaxed and easy - ( How powerful is she? Is she an authority where she’s from? What is a ‘Hashira’? What is a ‘Demon Slayer Corps’? Is she important? She would definitely need to return for her children if nothing else- ) - and I find myself smiling back before I can help it. “Explain to me what trouble my associate has done while we wait for Jiraiya’s spy.”
Rengoku Kyoujuro’s POV
‘You could leave.’
( I could, but it would cause a lot of trouble. )
I still have the ‘ Seal ’ around my eyes, and my hands and feet are kept bound.
‘It would be so easy for you to leave this place.’
( But it would be harder to prove my innocence. It would be harder for my friends to find me. )
‘What friends? It’s been ten years. You are alone. So terribly alone-’
“ A Hashira can stand alone, that’s why Demons fear them. ” The words Akina once slung so easily, so casually feel like I have to drag them out of my throat. “ A Hashira is like an oak tree, alone and strong and firmly rooted. ”
“Look! The crazy guy’s talking to himself again!” Someone nearby calls,
“ Guards! The nutter’s talking about demons and pillars again!” Another person calls,
“ Hey! What the-”
“ Who are- ”
‘What friends would leave you alone for so long? You are so far away-’
“ Rengoku! ” The ‘ Seal ’ is ripped from my eyes, and soft lantern light casts over my face, “ Rengoku, are you okay?! ”
I blink the spots out of my eyes, recoiling slightly from the light as a shadowed figure - a face? - moves closer.
‘What kind of friend leaves you to rot in prison for four years for trying to save a child?’
“ Akina! ” I cry out, tears rising in my eyes as her warm brown eyes, sharp jawline, and small, pointed nose swim into focus. “ You’ll never believe what I found! ”
‘Of course, she won’t believe you! She left you here to die, fool!’
“ Rengoku ,” She clasps a hand on my shoulder, “You can tell me all of it later, I promise , my friend-”
“ It’s important- ”
“ It’s about my time in the Castle. ” I snap my jaws shut immediately, blinking, and the strange voice that only seems to acknowledge me, and that no one else seems to hear goes quiet too.
I don’t like the signs that that points to.
“ Undo his chains. ” She looks over her shoulder, “ He won’t run. ”
“Are you sure?” I look up, blinking in surprise again at the sight of the Lady Hokage, Senju Tsunade, standing at Akina’s back. “He put up quite a fight the last time he was loose.”
“He’s my friend , Lady Tsunade.” Akina’s voice does the hard thing it does before she starts baring her teeth and pulling out politics . “He won’t run while I’m around.”
( “-friend-” )
It feels like I get punched in the gut, and I wind up collapsing forward, burying my face in her neck as my body curls in.
“ Rengoku, I- ”
“ Akina, ” I gasp out, breath shaky, and everything hurts , “ What took you so long? ”
“ I am so sorry, Rengoku, I am so sorry, my friend. ” She wraps her arms around me and squeezes , and it feels like some of the cracks heal up, but…
“ Akina, something is wrong- ”
“ I know, ” She kisses my temple, shuffling sideways and baring my restraints to Jiraiya - the Toad Sage, one of the Three Sannin of the Leaf - and keeping her hold on me . “ I know something’s wrong Rengoku, and I’m going to fix it, otouto. I promise I’ll fix it. ”
“ What if you can’t? ”
“Then I’ll build a plan, and you can do the rest.” She lifts my face and smiles at me, “Don’t you remember? Anything is possible when you set your heart ablaze.”
‘She knows you're broken.’
( Shut up. )
‘That’s her way of saying she’s going to leave you again.’
( SHUT UP! )
I fold forward again as the voice starts taunting, and Akina catches me.
“ You better tell me everything you know about this Akatsuki thing that the Zetsu creature you became so interested in is a part of, or so help me- ” Akina snarls lowly, cradling me to her chest like she did when I was a child - like when Okaa-san just died, like when Otou-san just started drinking heavily and it still scared me and Senjuro, like when she used to sing us to sleep - and I tuck my face in her neck again as her comforting snarl sounds off to scare away the world . “- I will tear apart the world to find them out myself. ”
“ Akina, we need to get him to the hospital first. He’s clearly not well. You can treat him there. ” Lady Tsunade suggests,
“ No. ” Jiraiya murmurs,
“ Excuse me? ” Tsunade demands,
“ We’re going to go back to your office, await my spy, and bring any supplies she needs there. She has helped bring us allies, given over information that could cripple the Akatsuki, all without demanding a single thing . ” Jiraiya - somehow - sounds both quietly resigned and thoroughly furious. “ If Rengoku needs treatment, whatever it is, Akina will be assisted it. If Genya needs treatment, Akina will be assisted. Do you forget how powerful your grandfather was?”
( What does Hashirama Senju have anything to do with us? )
“... point taken. ” Tsunade sighs, “ Kamado-san, what do you need to treat Rengoku-kun? ”
“Ink. ” Akina murmurs, her voice calm and soft against the side of my head, and I shiver as she pets down my back. “ A lot of ink, and as much paper as you can spare. ”
“ I hate when you do that stuff, ” I mutter the taste of bile already rising in my mouth, there’s an ominous sense of curiosity in the back of my mind, but if she needs ink and paper... “ Why can’t we just use incense? Or holy water? I’d even take iron stakes or poison over that.”
“ Tough luck, otouto. ” She kisses my head again, then scoops an arm under my legs and lifts me, princess-style. “ Today, we practice our calligraphy. ”