Something New
Kushina’s hair was longer now; she could wear her hair up with that hairpin.
She was able to form a loose, messy knot at the crown of her head. Two strands fell to frame her face.
Kushina saw her new friend more and more. Every other day, she’d break from lessons and leave the house. The two Uzumaki would play games, silly games that passed the time.
Kushina spoke to Minori about her day, what she learned, and Minori would talk about hers in return.
At first, Minori was surprised when Kushina babbled about what she was learning, though quickly let it slide at the mention of Ren’s name.
“Kushina-chan,” she had called, “Make sure not to brag too much to others on what you’re learning. Usually, you’re supposed to be a little bit older before you start. Don’t want your Ren-chan to get in trouble, do we?”
Kushina nodded in turn. It made sense, she was incredibly young yet was already starting to train for a ninja life, however much she disliked the idea.
Minori started to show her more, tell her more, after that. Apparently, Minori was a retired ninja. Minori made a profession of selling hair ornaments, post retirement, opening up her own little stall. The most interesting thing, Kushina thought, was that many of the pieces had seals carved upon them.
Kushina was told that the one given to her was carved with two seals. One: a seal of durability. Minori said it was capable of defending against sharp weapons. She insisted the accessory was more tenacious than it looked. That one was on most of the hair sticks at the woman’s stall.
The second was a small storage seal. Kushina was told the space was small so store something important. She decided to seal the book she had made for Holly, the full thing that included her end. It was private, important. Kushina felt it was the right decision.
Her routine broke when Shig came home a week and a half later.
“Tou-san!” she called, ready to leap into his awaiting arms.
The man caught her, easily bringing her to his chest with a small twirl. “Kushina, it’s been a while.”
Ren joined from behind. “Well, I guess you're not dead yet.”
Shig could only laugh awkwardly, ignoring the comment altogether. “Chikako will be coming back in the next couple days.”
Chikako was Kaa-san, if Kushina remembered correctly.
Ren huffed. “The whole family’s coming back to give me trouble, huh?” Kushina could pick out the hint of a smile in his voice. “Since you’re done, go home. Stop bothering me,” and he shut the door.
Shig sighed whimsically. While he turned towards the direction of their house, Kushina jumped down to her own feet and snatched her father’s hand.
He laughed. “You’ll have to tell me what you’ve been up to while we were gone.”
Kushina was happy to comply.
◌◌◌◌◌◌◌◌◌
Both Shig and Chikako knew their daughter was different. After her second birthday, they knew, or rather confirmed, Kushina was nowhere near a normal child.
That was okay. The both of them still loved their child. Undoubtedly they did.
However… Shig was a little startled when he heard what his daughter had been up to.
He abruptly stood from the kitchen table, raising a shaking fist. “I’m going to kill him, damn bastard!”
All he could see was Ren’s half smug face in his head.
The darker haired Uzumaki collapsed back to the table in his sleeping house. The hopelessness and worry swelled incredibly.
He was at least glad Minori was slightly in the picture, she’d always been much more sensible than Ren was.
Shig would of course allow Kushina to continue her learning, she seemed to enjoy it a lot. He knew it was good for her to learn early; she’d have a much higher chance at survival in the future. It was all he wanted for his daughter, survival and happiness.
He would absolutely not let his child wander Uzushio’s streets alone again, though. What idiot would let a two year old wander alone!?
Ren, obviously.
He sighed, where was the mother of his child when he needed her.
◌◌◌◌◌◌◌◌
Kushina was woken up by Shig the next day. She blinked sleeplily, rubbing her eyes to peer through the haze of the morning.
“Kushina, let’s get up now. We’re gonna go see Minori-san.”
“Eh?” she sprung up, all remnants of sleep forgotten. “We’re gonna see Obaa-san?!”
Kushina was honestly a little surprised. After recounting her adventures to Shig, she expected him to never allow her to go into town again. She had only thought of that after all of her blabbering, or course.
So, putting her hair in its now routine style, Kushina slid on her shorts and tee with vigor.
They started their journey in a relatively normal fashion. Kushina would run to flowers on the side of the road to examine them, Shig always letting her be while keeping an eye on her.
Kushina liked flowers.
In no time, they arrived at Minori’s stall. It was a fair bit earlier than usual so there were significantly less people.
Minori was sitting at her stand as usual, fiddling with the second hair stick that was always tucked in the tight bun on top of her head. Both had pretty light red stained wood. Kushina asked about them before, but Minori refused to ever give her a straight answer.
She moved her eyes in their direction when the pair got closer, face softening as she spotted Kushina.
“Well hello there Kushina-chan, you’re earlier than usual today. Did you bring a friend this time?” Minori eyed Shig with a gentle smile.
“Yeah! But he’s also my Tou-san!” Kushina closed the distance between her and the stand, lifting to her tiptoes to peak over it. “Baa-san, Baa-san! Do you have any new ones today?!”
Minori chuckled. “I do happen to have one new one today. Aren’t you lucky?”
The woman began the motion to reach down when Shig spoke up. “Minori-san,” the woman paused to give him her regard. Shig bowed his head. “Thank you for watching my daughter. I’m sorry, but I believe I will have to entrust her to you again as I have someone to go and talk to.”
Kushina could see the twitch to his brow when he stood up.
Minori smiled devilishly, something Kushina had never seen before. “Make sure to give the damn old man a whack on the head for me. It’s been too long since I’ve been able to knock some sense into him.”
Shig nodded in return and did his super fast ninja leave, as Kushina liked to call it.
Kushina was dumbfounded. “Huh?! Baa-san knows Ren-chan?!”
Minori turned her attention back to the girl and wore a nostalgic grin. “Sadly, I was on the same genin team with the bastard.”
Kushina heard the term genin from both Ren and her father. She was pretty sure it was the lowest rank of a ninja.
Minori grimaced, quickly composing herself to move into a wink. “I knew your grandpa too. He was on our team. The group stuck up until retirement.” She paused, considering. “You see, Kushina-chan, many genin teams eventually become as close as family.”
Kushina had figured her grandparents were either dead or her parents weren’t close to them. Either way, people not to be spoken of.
Kushina opened her mouth to ask: Why? Why was he dead? She could recognize the past tense and regretful expression. That only lead to a single conclusion.
Something must have happened.
She wasn’t able to spit out the words she’d meant to say, they were interrupted.
“Oí, brat, what do you think you’re doing?” a menacing voice called. Though, it was less scary than it was probably intended to be. The voice sounded young.
Kushina turned in its direction.
Down the street, there was a boy. Untamed fiery red hair flopped over his eyebrows while the rest was left overgrown. His eyes burned in contempt when he lay his eyes on Kushina.
The boy strut towards the stand with purpose, his sandals throwing sand up in his path.
“I know you don’t have money, get the hell out of here pipsqueak!” He made the hand motions to shoo her off, only to look pathetic as it didn’t work.
A tick mark took root on her forehead. “Why should I, bane~?”
The boy went to respond again, probably to say something stupid, but he wasn’t able to. Minori began to laugh. She laughed and laughed and laughed, and wouldn’t stop.
Eventually, Kushina released her face from the scowl previously present. Minori looked pretty when she laughed.
“T-this,” Minori attempted to stop herself, “This, Kushina-chan, is my son Keiichi. Keiichi, this is Kushina, she likes to visit me. We’re friends.”
Her son?!
The supposed Keiichi bristled. “What kid would be friends with an old hag?!” He earned a smack on the head for that.
Kushina looked over the mother and son pair, they looked to be in complete contrast of each other. While Minori wore a soft yellow dress, complimentary to the sweet aura she gave off, Keiichi was dressed in a navy sweatshirt and black pants. The boy’s outfit only added to his unapproachability.
“You see, Kushina-chan, Keiichi usually comes at this time to pick up his lunch for the ninja academy. He’s 6, so he started last year.”
4 years older than her. With how he acted, Kushina would have never guessed.
Keiichi aggressively shoved his hands in his pockets, shuffling over to Minori’s outstretched hand. Taking the well prepared lunch box, Kushina could just barely hear a quiet Thanks Kaa-san.
Minori chuckled as the boy walked away, giving Kushina one last stink eye as he left. “You know, Keiichi isn’t one for people. Actually, that might be the most expressive I’ve seen him around another.”
The older lady held a wistful smile.
Looking up at that smile, the girl turned her contemplative gaze back to the woman’s child. She furrowed her brows as she thought.
Kushina lips wiggled into a mischievous grin. She decided she liked the kid.
Putting both hands up to wave, she called, “Bye Chi-chan~!”
Keiichi immediately turned to glare in her direction. “What did you—!”
Minori interrupted him by shaking her head and gesturing to move along. They could hear him growl as he hinged his mouth shut. Once he was out of sight, she began to laugh again.
Kushina laughed with her.
“Obaa-san, I think he really loves you!” She really believed that.