Why Should You?
The day after, Tou-san was walking her to Ren’s, a sack of stuff secured to her back.
He was leaving again, Kaa-san was already gone.
Kushina knew it didn’t concern her, and she didn’t particularly mind staying at Ren’s, but she felt she needed to know why. It was important, to her at least.
“Tou-san?” He gave her his attention. “Why are you and Kaa-san leaving?”
Kushina knew what ninjas were, she had a lifetime of fictional stories packed in her small head. She also had that small bit of knowledge from this world.
Kushina knew her parents were ninja. She knew what ninja did.
The pair stopped in the middle of the road as her father knelt down to eye level.
“We have to go on a mission to keep everyone here safe.” She supposed that made sense, but were missions supposed to be so frequent? “You do know that your Kaa-san and I love you very much, right?”
Kushina smiled. “Yes, Tou-san.”
Kushina loved her parents too.
Blue eyes gleamed back at her, slowly lifting into small crescents.
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They had arrived at Ren’s house. The two men lingered at the door while Kushina made herself at home.
“So, it’s gotten to that point, has it? What are you going to do, Shig?” Ren spoke indifferently, leaning on the doorway.
Shig– Tou-san– grimaced. “I can’t do anything about it. I’ll just have to do my best…”
Ren took hold of the door, ready to close both it and the conversation as he leveled Tou-san with a hard look. “We both know that your best isn’t enough. Nothing is guaranteed in war.” Ren paused and broke eye contact. “People can’t live up to much when hatred and greed are in the equation.”
And that was that, Ren walked away from the closed door.
Kushina now understood, really understood, what this world was about, what was going on. She knew what ninja were, knew what they did, she also knew what that sort of power led to.
War
She was pulled by the back of her shirt’s collar. “Come on,” Ren said, “You're going to eat something.”
It was a strangely kind tone.
Kushina supposed she wasn’t being very discreet when listening to their conversation. So, she sat at the island of Ren’s small, but functional, kitchen and ate the meal that was set in front of her.
She giggled. “You're a nice person, Ren-chan~!”
◌◌◌◌◌◌◌◌◌
Her parents weren’t back the next day or the day after that. Kushina now had a dedicated little bedroom to herself, a futon included and everything!
She was just about out of drawing supplies. Ren offered to buy her more, but she refused. Kushina already knew how much he was doing for her so she decided to find another way to cure her boredom.
Ren had a small library in his house. There were tons of books that lined the shelfs. Kushina decided it was a good start.
She searched through the books, looking for those with pictures as they were easier to understand.
Kushina found some.
One was about something called chakra. She read it, or as much as she could with her limited vocabulary, but didn’t understand it too well. Her father taught her to sound out words, not gauge their concept. All it talked about was some sort of energy she should be able to feel and that ninjas used it.
Maybe that is what had been at the pit of her stomach the whole time?
But, she moved on. At this point, Kushina didn’t want anything to do with ninjas. She could already feel the childish contempt. The job was taking away her parents, after all.
There was another book that peaked her interest.
Fuinjutsu, it said it was called.
She didn’t care about that though. All she cared about were the beautiful symbols that littered pages. Kushina could practically taste the possibilities this kind of art held.
Kushina didn’t know what it was, what it did, only knew that it was pretty and she liked to draw.
Though she felt bad for bothering Ren about it, she wanted more.
So, Kushina ran up to the lounging Ren. “Ren-chan, Ren-chan! Teach me Funjusu!”
“Fuinjutsu,” he automatically corrected, but peered down at her form and the book she was holding. “Why do you want to learn something like that?”
She blanked at the question. Why did she want to learn Fuinjutsu? There were many reasons but… if he was asking about the main one…
Kushina’s grin grew bigger. “It’s really pretty!”
Ren stared some more. He scanned the child in front of him holding up a book of sealing. Scanned over her determined eyes and bright, expecting smile. Then, the first Kushina has ever seen, he smirked.
“You’ll need to work on your handwriting first, Chicken Scratch.”
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Ren started with theory. Kushina was not ecstatic about that. But, Kushina was determined. She would sit through boring lectures to learn.
“Uzumaki,” Ren had said, “Do you know who they are?”
Seconds went by with Kushina staring out into space.
“...No.” She was knocked on the head. “HEY! WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!”
The man clicked his tongue. “You don’t even know your own origins. How pathetic.”
Kushina seethed.
“Uzushio,” he started again, “Uzushio is the home of the Uzumaki. We are all a big clan, a family, so to speak.”
He leaned down to eye level. “Uzumaki Kushina. That is who you are.” His gaze turned to a warning glare. “But, know this, even if they are Uzumaki, put yourself first. Family isn’t always kind to each other.”
Kushina knew that. Holly knew that. But she nodded anyway.
It was funny, that was the first time Ren had said her name.
“Don’t take shit from anybody.”
Kushina wouldn’t take shit from anybody. That is who she was now.
◌◌◌◌◌◌◌◌◌
Kaa-san came to pick her up the next day. Ren promised to teach her more with a pat on the head.
But, Ren had told her something Kushina couldn’t get over.
“You were born from ninja so you will be a ninja.”
He looked upset by that fact.
Kushina told him she didn’t want to hurt anyone, didn’t want to kill anyone. She didn’t want to rob them of the chance at being happy.
Ren told her straight. “Then are you fine if those people you don’t want to hurt, hurt you? Hurt your family? Your home? It’s fine to not want to hurt people, great even. Learn how to protect rather than hurt. The more you learn, the more power you acquire, the better chance you have.”
Kushina wanted to protect those she loved. She didn’t want to be sad.
If being a ninja was the only way she’d be able to keep her home safe, then she’d be a ninja.
Home is not a place. Home is people.
“Kaa-san, can you teach me chakra?”