Desire and responsibility
In retrospect, Kyouko could probably have handled certain things better. She doesn’t regret it, precisely, the decisions she made seemed like the right ones at the time, and there’s little point in agonising over might have beens.
Still, in those last moments, with her Haru looking at her desperate, and afraid, and glowing with newly activated flames it was too late to learn how to use, with little Lambo and Ipin gearing up to fight even though they’d been far too young to die, in those moments she’d sworn to herself, that given it all to do over again she would never allow herself to be caught so helpless.
And then, wonder of wonders, she had been given it all to do again. A second chance, and this time, she wouldn’t let the sad frightened look in her brother’s eyes, in Tsuna’s eyes, hold her back from the fight. Because they’d done everything in their power to keep her safe last time, and she’d let them, because she loved them and they never looked so sad or afraid as when she suggested they might not always be able to protect her. She’d stayed at home, and let them protect her, and in the end all that had meant was that when they fell she couldn’t do anything to help or avenge them. She couldn’t even save herself.
Never again. Kyouko forced her toddler’s body to stand for the first time, and deep orange resolve flickered in the depths of her eyes.
…
Going fully active had taken time. It had taken time because she had time, so she could do it properly, gradually, without using the dangerous, do or die shortcuts that Reborn had used to train Tsuna that first time. Slow and steady and sure as sunrise, and it said something that this time, none of the boys had even tried to stop her. Just went to show they could learn from experience after all.
Her Hana was the first guardian she’d bonded, and of course Hana had been the one to come to her, had tracked her down first. Hana was the Cloud who drifted where she wished, and the place Hana had always chosen to drift was right beside Kyouko. The mind reading was a new and convenient development though. There were interesting possibilities in that.
More time, more guardians. Her Haru bright and unpredictable as always, and then Ipin, not so little this time around, clever clever Shoichi who hadn’t always been hers, who had once been hurt so deeply by a Sky that could have been his and yet still chose to trust her with his heart and soul, Spanner, who pretended so well that he didn’t care and thought no-one noticed the way he would follow Shoichi wherever he went without a moment’s hesitation. And last always the last to come in from the cold Basil, who was so alike and so different from Tsuna, who was almost certainly Tsuna’s brother even if none of them had ever said it out loud. Basil, who never quite let himself feel worthy of others’ regard.
Together, with their own gathered around them, she and Tsuna formed the beating heart of their academy class. They were the class idols and yet, indefinably more than that, and where they led, others would follow, even into hell. Sky charisma at its most compelling. From the outside it must look almost disturbing, even from the inside, she could tell that Tsuna at least found it unsettling.
She didn’t. She knew she should probably feel a bit bad about the way she and Tsuna were simply by their presence, simply by being who they were, dividing the loyalty of their classmates, gaining influence with the next generation of ninja to be, Tsuna certainly did. But, Oniisan was worried, and Kusakabe was worried, and her Basil was worried, and she had a feeling at the back of her mind that they might just need that influence one day.
And Kyouko was good at being popular, at smiling and being charming, and wielding influence in all the subtle ways needed to make people love her, no-one got to be middle school school idol by accident. Sky flames really only enhanced those talents. She liked having influence, she liked being listened to, she liked being liked, and she was good at making sure she got those things. So she did. And really it wasn’t like it was even discouraged. The academy teachers seemed to find her efforts somewhere between amusing and praiseworthy. Her Kunoichi teacher actually gave her a gold star on her school report for “properly grasping the value of social manipulation”.
Besides, compared to the damaged pair of baby Skies in the year above, she and Tsuna were a positively benign influence. At least her Will and Tsuna’s were working in concert, in Harmony with each other (they always did have a lot in common). Sasuke and Naruto in contrast were constantly shifting between vicious competition and desperate longing for the home comfort the other could offer, and the rest of their class were caught in the riptide of conflicting competing Sky attraction, now pulled one way, now the other and hurting for it.
Their graduation had helped, somewhat. Given most of their class some space from the brewing Sky war, and some missions together had hammered them into some semblance of co-operation with each other. If they had been any ordinary young Skies that might have even been enough to settle them. But they were both too damaged for things to be that simple, too alone to be able to tolerate the competition, and too alone not to want each other’s full attention. And of course, it was her cousin Sakura that was caught in the middle.
Whichever idiot had thought putting those two on the same genin team was a good idea had a lot to answer for.
In any case, there were a number of reasons for Kyouko to be watching team seven (watching not stalking, no matter what Rokudo said and he really wasn’t in any position to comment anyway). For her cousin’s sake, for the sake of the little baby Skies that didn’t know what they were doing, for the sake of whatever innocent bystanders might get caught up in that mess. So she noticed when they ran into a team from Suna right before the chuunin exams. She noticed and the thought that registered most clearly was “oh shit”.
Because both Naruto and Sasuke were clearly interested in the little murder Cloud that scared even his own teammates (no accounting for taste). And the murder Cloud clearly wasn’t stable enough to understand what he wanted from them, and she had a horrible feeling this was going to end in blood, or worse, a diplomatic incident.
…
She was right, although, it turned out the diplomatic incident was less of an incident, more of a full scale breakdown in relations, and it wasn’t actually a direct consequence of the team seven issues so there was that. It was all a bit chaotic really, the village had been invaded, the murder Cloud had lost it big time and gone on a rampage, and of course, team seven had followed. In the confusion, no one had really noticed when Kyouko and Haru had decided to discreetly follow them.
In the end there hadn’t been much for them to do except to hold the murder Cloud’s siblings back from interfering. They might be enemy ninja but that didn’t mean they needed to get caught between a rampaging Cloud and two Skies that didn’t even know they were fighting over him. No-one deserved that, and the girl was really quite pretty and attractively competent, letting her get minced would have been such a waste. Kyouko smiled brightly and gave the disbelieving kunoichi a quick kiss before letting Haru put them both to sleep.
Kyouko would admit to being slightly surprised that Naruto ended up being the one to successfully bond with the Cloud. She would have thought Sasuke’s more bloodthirsty impulses would have been more appealing to him. But then, on second thoughts, maybe it did make sense, Naruto was far better with people than Sasuke, maybe what baby murderCloud really wanted was for someone to love and understand him. Naruto could do that, Sasuke… really wasn’t in the right sort of place, mentally, to do that.
…
It was probably the best result that could have been expected. MurderCloud’s murderous rampage had been stopped, and he now seemed far happier and more stable. Baby Sky Naruto had a bonded guardian and might now stop being so pushy with her cousin. The village was still standing, none of the people she was personally attached to had died. All in all it had actually gone quite well. But she looked at the unconscious form of Uchiha Sasuke, and she worried. How would he react to being rejected in favour of Naruto, would he even understand why he felt that way? She didn’t know, but she suspected it couldn’t possibly end well, and despite herself she couldn’t help but feel invested. One of the lesser known side effects of long term surveillance on specific subjects. Briefly she even wondered if maybe it was time for her to take them all aside and have a little talk about Flames and how they worked. Secrecy was all very well, but at some point surely they had a duty of care.
Then the Uchiha defected and she decided it was probably for the best that they’d never got to that conversation. After all, the thought of a rogue Sky that actually knew what he was doing on the loose where they couldn’t monitor him was really a nightmare that didn’t bear thinking about.