Year 2 & 3
Chapter 2: Year 2 & 3
Thankfully the war was starting to see its end, Minato was worried about missing his daughter's second birthday. Kami forbid he let a couple (thousand) of Iwa shinobi stand in between that. However, during Nozomi’s party she asks where Obito and Rin are. They loved cake just as much as her and Kaa-san got her one with ice-cream!
Everyone in the room becomes quiet. She can feel the sadness in her parents’, Auntie Mikoto and Kakashi-nii’s chakra but she doesn’t know why.
Her mother explains in a soft voice why they were not going to be able to make it, and Nozomi cradles her lion closer to her.
-
Later that night Minato would sit in his study staring at the three faces whom he had lost and failed so miserably, because Rin and Obito were the sweetest children who deserved the world and more, and they were robbed of the life they should have had and- Kakashi , what was he going to do with that boy? How on Earth was he going to get it in his brain that it wasn’t his fault, because as their sensei he should’ve been there. Minato held his head in his hands, weariness spreading throughout his body, because a sensei should never outlive his students .
When Minato really buries himself in his mind he thinks if he could go back and decimate all of Iwa if it meant his students were alive- he would.
That thought could never come to fruition, not even whispered out loud, because his inauguration is only months away. Thinking something like that is not befitting of the Yondaime Hokage. As soon as Minato came back from the field, he had a meeting with hokage. The Sandaime would recommend him to Fire Daimyo as next in line, and Kami- it was an incredible honor, but how could he even think himself worthy of such a position. The audacity to even feel gratitude for something he did not deserve-
He feels rather than sees as Kushina grabs his shoulder with a comforting grip, he hopes that she ignores the tears that somehow manage to escape.
At the end of the day he will do what is expected of him as a loyal shinobi of the Leaf, even if it means pushing down his grief in the very depths of his mind and soul.
-
Hiruzen's shoulders sagged with relief as he felt a wave of an emotion he had had not felt in such a long time, hope. Now was the perfect time to pass off the hat, and finally he can retire during an age of peace he once thought impossible.
“I, Hiruzen Sarutobi, step down from my position as Third Hokage, and present to you Namikaze Minato, the Fourth Hokage!”
Nazomi watched in wonder from her mother’s arms listening to the old man’s voice boom from his place on the Hokage tower. The crowd erupted in cheers, and most of all relief. The war has finally ended and the coronation of a new Hokage has cemented the fact that Konoha is finally in an era of peace.
She sees her father scan the crowd and locks eyes with them, Kushina waves excitedly yet Nozomi can’t seem to take her eyes away from the energy of the crowd, specifically the vast amount of chakra that fills her vision and mind making her feel really drowsy.
-
The first year of peace is like a breath of fresh air for the village hidden in the leaves passing quickly, and Uzumaki Nozomi soon turns three-years old.
-
It all started with Itachi asking how Nozomi was such a good seeker, because when he played with the other kids in the clan they could never find him as easily as she had. This is something he took great pride in because Shisui-nii was a genin and still had trouble finding him sometimes.
Nozomi realized while playing hide and seek with Itachi and their mothers that she could always feel where they were. Itachi’s chakra felt like the mug of warm milk her mother would make when she couldn’t sleep. Auntie Mikoto’s was like the sun on a cold day, while her own mother’s chakra felt like rain when it sprinkles softly and left little kisses over your skin. However, mother’s chakra had two feelings, when she focused really hard the rain went away and instead it was like a storm, booming thunder and winds that would threaten to rip her apart.
It scares Nozomi .
Itachi and Nozomi stared at their mothers, as they sat there with eyes wide and mouth agape after listening to what she just said. Hastily, Kushina gathers her in her arms and mumbles something to Mikoto- though Nozomi can’t tell what. They bid their goodbyes, and Kushina is sprinting through the rooftops eager to tell her husband.
-
All the ANBU in the room still as Kushina bursts through the doors, Shikaku pauses in his conversation with Minato taking in her flustered appearance, and the kid in her arms,
“What a drag, I guess we could always reschedule it for next week, I’ll leave it to you Hokage-sama”
Minato grimaced, “Thank you Shikaku.”
Shikaku bows and takes his leave, Minato shifts his eyes to his two girls feeling his wife’s chakra flairing excitedly- “Did something happen?”
“Our girl is a sensor!” Kushina smiled, setting Nozomi down in front of her. “Say Nozomi! Tell your Tou-chan what you told me and Auntie Mikoto!”
Nozomi sighed, crossing her arms behind her head, and repeated what she said earlier. “But this is my secret hide and seek technique don’t tattle!” she scowled.
Kushina laughed heartily, but Minato couldn’t help but look at his daughter in awe, who had somehow managed to consciously use chakra to locate people, not just that it seemed she could also sense the kyuubi’s chakra on a certain level.
“I can feel Bakashi’s chakra... but why is he all the way up there?” she looked curiously in the direction of ANBU Hound’s spot in the beams of the ceiling. Kakashi cursed under his breath his control had lapsed from the shock of hearing a nearly three year old Nozomi’s sensor abilities.
“Say Nozomi-chan what does mine feel like?” Minato leaned forward resting his head in his right hand. Nozomi blinked at her father’s expression. His eyes were filled with so much warmth and pride! Like the time she had successfully managed to stick a leaf to her forehead. Her skills must be even more impressive than she thought, ever since she found out what being Hokage meant she looked at her father with new eyes. Apparently he can defeat anyone! Except Kaa-san…
“Tou-chan’s chakra feels like- like you know when it’s super hot outside? And then I get really sweaty and gross it makes me want to take a bath-”
Minato feels his mental state wither…
“But then there’s a breeze like the wind is running through my hair and around me and it feels really peaceful!” she closed her eyes in content, imitating the feeling she experiences.
Minato’s eyes soften dramatically, as he smiles at the wholesome description of his chakra.
-
Now that she’s apparently a “sensor” her mother has been pretty keen on getting her to meditate even more than usual- something she already did with her mother for fun, but it led to a canceled play-date that she was really looking forward to!
She doesn’t really mind because apparently this is part of training and she wants to be strong like her parents! Itachi says his parents are making him train now too, but she still wishes she could be playing with Itachi right now. Their last adventure included jumping over a sea of lava! Which was really just jumping from rock to rock in Itachi’s garden but it was totally real ok! Lion almost fell into the lava and that could have been really bad thankfully Itachi got to him in time-
“Nozomi, that’s enough. I can feel you circulating chakra all the way from here! The goal is to circulate chakra at a constant steady rate-” Kushina sighed exasperatedly, threatening her with no more play dates briefly crossed her mind- but that was simply too cruel. There was really no need to be so hard on her, she remembered having absolutely nofocus at this age- in a rush to in her mind was the good stuff. Thankfully, Nozomi seemed to get as distracted as any normal three year old. It gets Kushina thinking about how when she was younger she never wanted to do stupid exercises, and would rather follow her older cousins as they had already moved onto more complex sealing and justus, and begging them to let her learn just one-
Nozomi grimaced she hadn't realized her chakra was circulating so rapidly, she peeked an eye open. Her mother stood there with her hands on her hips looking at her curiously, “You know what Nozomi-chan? I think that’s enough meditation for today! Why don’t you help me pick those peppers you planted.”
As she knelt down on the ground next to Kushina, she wondered what chilis even tasted like. Her mother had wanted to start her off off with a relatively easy plant and Nozomi picked them. Mostly because on the package they were really red and a lot of her favorite foods were red like strawberries, apples, lollipops and-
“ Nozomi! No!-”, Kushina cried out, but it was too late, she watched as her daughter’s face remained the same despite taking a bite from the spicy chili.
“Kaa-san! This is yummy!!” Nozomi smiled, holding her free hand in a thumbs up.
-
It was going to be a hectic morning, Kushina had sooo much shopping to do for Nozomi’s birthday dinner, which consisted of her daughter’s favorite foods. The main one being spicy curry, really spicy apparently- because when Nozomi had helped her that one time, she had sneaked in more of the fresh picked chillies they had picked that day. Poor Minato’s face turned as red as the girl’s hair!
There was that… and she had to clean the house, because wow! Nozomi was quite the little tornado. Plus she has to make it home in time for Nozomi to take her nap- and it wasn’t even nine o’clock yet
Kushina groaned, turning the corner to find Nozomi dangling off the edge of the couch dangerously, her heart drops-
That is until she sees two golden chains wrapped around Nozomi’s Lion. She just can’t look away, her face frozen in shock. Nozomi had turned around feeling the sudden flare in her mother’s chakra, “He almost fell into the lava!”
Uzumaki Nozomi found herself and Lion being spun around in her mother’s arms, she was too dizzy to pay attention to what Kushina was saying. However, getting one-hundred cakes for her birthday was one thing she did manage to pick up.
-
Next play date Itachi and Nozomi were resting from their rather intense adventure of avoiding lava- which when Itachi tries to suggest a different game Nozomi is pretty adamant. Nothing gives her quite as much of a rush than the thought of being burned alive by molten earth, but their time had gradually turned into them showing off the new skills they had learned.
Nozomi watched in awe as Itachi’s kunai all landed in the center of the target, “Wow Itachi! How did you learn how to do that?”
He moved to pull his kunai out of the target, “Tou-san taught me after we came back from the field…”
“Nozomi, it was really scary out there.”
Despite the war being basically over, there were still some small battles and skirmishes that occurred as it died down. When father had brought him, he could never forget the face of the man that had almost stabbed him. As soon as they got back his parents had gotten into an argument, but had basically resulted in him starting his shinobi training even earlier than expected.
She watched as her friend’s eyes went somewhat distant, as he remembered what had exactly scared him.
Nozomi crossed her arms and expression turned smug, “It’ll be okay, I can protect us with my new technique!”
She focused her chakra, trying to evoke the same feeling from the first time she awoke her chains. Opening her eyes and locking in on her Lion that somehow got tossed a few feet away- she willed the chains to move. Rather than wrapping around the lion, her two chains had instead stabbed through it-
Nozomi watched as Lion’s head was torn off, her chains quickly receding.
She cried .
-
When Kushina arrived at the Uchiha’s residence Nozomi was silent but tears were still flowing freely down her face. She made eye contact with Mikoto, who had slowly shook her head. Nozomi watched as her mother bent down to her eye level, “What happened to Lion, Nozo-chan?”
“I hurt him with my chains! I just wanted to show Itachi but then I got excited and I-” Nozomi sobbed and cried even harder.
Kushina restrained the urge to laugh at her poor daughter, watching the snot bubble that began to inflate and deflate with Nozomi’s cries.
“It will be alright Nozo-chan, as soon as we get home I’ll fix him right up!” She gathered her daughter into her arms and bid goodbye to Mikoto.
-
When Minato got home he flinched at the sight of Nozomi's toy Lion(?)
Kushina winced, “Good as new -ttebane…”
He shook his head as he took off his sandals and cloak, “What happened today?”
His wife sighed, “Well Nozomi wanted to show Itachi her chains and ya know she doesn’t quite have great control over them yet and well that happened…”
“It makes me so happy though… to know that she has such pride in her new power, our daughter’s an Uzumaki through and through!” Minato and Kushina smiled at each other, because they both knew what that meant.
Kushina was pretty much the last of her clan in Konoha, but now that Nozomi has awakened her Adamantine chains… It gave her so much hope. The demise of her clan always felt like it was just yesterday, recalling how she had barely escaped when her compound had nearly been reduced to rubble. The face of uncle Hikaru as he had begged her to run away-
She had always felt remorse, helpless as the remnants of her clan were hunted down and killed, or kidnapped to be abused by other hidden villages.
Though that was no longer the case. The Uzumaki clan lives on not just through her anymore, but also through her daughter. Like hell she wasn’t going to do her best to honor their memory.