A History
The next morning he woke up to Naruto screaming, a rather rude awakening from a nice dream he was having about leaping through trees at high speed. He opened his eyes and winced at the brightness, sitting up in his makeshift bed and blinking groggily at his surroundings, momentarily confused at not finding himself in his room.
"Kaa-san?" he asked, waking up enough to notice her making something in the kitchen, gently bouncing a squalling Naruto in her arms.
She turned from the food- pancakes he smelled, and grinned eagerly. They were his favorite breakfast food- and smiled at him, stifling a yawn. "Good morning, my little sapling. Did you sleep well?"
"Um, yeah. Do you need help?" he offered, watching her awkwardly attempt to maneuver the kitchen with an uncooperative baby in her arms. Shuurei's been teaching him how to cook, both traditional foods and some of her special dishes from the other world, which was certainly an experience. He loved spending time with her, and loved watching the expressions on peoples' faces when they first tried his food.
"Yes, do you think you could take Naruto for a moment? I have to watch the stove and that's hard to do while carrying a baby."
"Sure." he agreed easily, long since accustomed to taking care of infants from when he helped Konan, Nagato, Yahiko, and Shuurei raise the Uzushio orphans. He'd been determined to earn his keep and, at the time, insecure in his place in their growing family, so he'd done anything he could to help out around the Warren. Getting to his feet, he padded his way into the kitchen and carefully took the squirming Naruto from her, being careful to support his head.
The minute he was in Tenzo's arms, the screams abruptly stopped. Naruto stared up at him for a few seconds, huffing and whimpering, and then stopped all together, shifting a little to make himself more comfortable in his arms before smooshing his face into Tenzo's chest. Tenzo stared down in awe at the tiny body in his arms, never quite having gotten over the wonder at holding such a fragile life in his hands. 'Was I ever that tiny?' he wondered.
Shuurei stared at them in surprise, then smiled happily. "Well, will you look at that. If he likes me, then he seems to adore you, Tenzo. I've been trying to settle him for twenty minutes now but the second he's in your arms he quiets down."
"Really?" his face lit up, looking down fondly at the bundle in his arms. "He really likes me?'
"He certainly does." she affirmed just as Naruto cooed delightedly up at a slightly dazed Tenzo, who waved his fingers in front of Naruto's face for him to grab. He managed to catch one of them and promptly shoved one of the fingers in his mouth to suck on happily. It was to Tenzo's credit that he didn't so much as flinch, much less make a disgusted face at the wet sensation or try to pull his fingers away like most other people would. He genuinely seemed not to care, speaking in a low, soothing voice to the baby blonde as he rocked slightly back and forth.
Fifteen minutes later breakfast was almost done and Kushina came ambling clumsily down the stairs, yawning hugely and rubbing at the corners of her eyes at get rid of the crusties. "M'r'nin'," she mumbled, " 'ats f'r b'eckf'st?"
"Morning, Dragon-chan. I'm making pancakes." Shuurei answered, flipping one over with her spatula.
Kushina jolted awake at that, eyes lighting up in anticipation. "Pancakes?"
"Yep, your favorite. Do you mind setting the table? I'm still not sure where all the dishes are quite yet."
Kushina complied, reaching up to open an overhead cupboard and taking out a stack of plates. "Oh man, it's been so long since I've had pancakes, I can't tell you how much I've missed 'em, dattebane! I so need you to give me the recipe, I couldn't find it anywhere!"
"Sure thing." She took a moment to look Kushina over, obviously concerned. "How are you feeling now? Better?"
Kushina smiled back gratefully, with an expression on her face like she still couldn't believe Shuurei was actually here. "Better than I have in a month. Thank you so much for looking after him for me. I haven't had a good night's sleep in weeks, and I know he's a restless sleeper."
"It was no problem. I'm so happy to be able to get to know my little cousin. He's lethally adorable, you know."
"I know!" Kushina squealed. Tenzo winced at the high pitch. "And the little whiskers are just so cute! Sometimes I almost can't take it!"
"You got that right." She flipped a pancake onto a plate and poked at the bacon with a spatula. "He seems to really like Tenzo-kun. He was in the middle of a temper tantrum but the second Tenzo got ahold of him he stopped immediately, when I'd been trying to calm him down for twenty minutes."
"Really?!" Kushina asked, disbelieving, almost dropping a plate she'd been about to set on the table. "But it's impossible to calm him down when he gets going like that! It's a miracle!"
"He can't be that bad." Tenzo objected, looking down at the giggling baby in his arms. "Do you want to take him?" he asked, holding him out to Kushina.
"Sure." She went to take the baby from him, but the moment he left Tenzo's arms Naruto started to cry again, wailing loudly. "Shoosh, shoosh. Calm down Naruto-kun, kaa-san's here. It's alright." She struggled to get Naruto to stop crying for ten minutes before admitting defeat. "Here Tenzo, you try taking him again, see if that gets him to stop."
Sure enough, the moment he was back in Tenzo's arms he was one happy little baby. Kushina just stared at him in disbelief before literally falling to her knees and clasping her hands out in front of her as if she were praying. "It's a miracle! Can I keep him, Shuurei-san? Can he live with us? Please? For my sanity? Obviously he is a gift from kami-sama, an answer to my prayers! Naruto never behaves this well for anyone!"
"That would be fantastic, Kushi-chan! I was actually going to ask if he could stay with you while he goes to the Academy, anyway. I can't join the village quite yet, so I was at a loss as to where he could stay while I'm gone."
"Perfect then!" Kushina grinned exuberantly. "He'll be a blessing to have, for the babysitting alone!"
"Yes, he's wonderful with children and such a help around the house. I've been teaching him how to cook, too, and he's been doing really well. Very polite as well. I'm sure he'll be on his best behavior, right Tenzo-kun?"
"Hai, Kaa-san!" he hastily replied at the stern warning clearly written on her face.
"Do you have enough room, though?"
Kushina waved off the concern. "Sure, I have plenty of room. We… we were planning on having a big family so Minato bought a us a big house." her smile faltered a bit at that, but she pushed the worry away. "Even with Kakashi living here, we have plenty of guest rooms."
"Kakashi?" Shuurei asked, feigning ignorance. "Who's he?"
"Oh, he's one of… one of Minato's old genin team, Rin's teammate. He's had a rough time of it and… and Minato was worried enough to convince him to move in with us so we could keep an eye on him. He's got a fairly hefty pole jammed up his butt, but he's still a good kid. He's out on a mission right now- has been almost non-stop since… since they lost their other teammate, Obito- but he's due back tomorrow."
"Oh?" Shuurei asked, sounding concerned. "Is he okay? If he's lost both a teammate and his sensei, he can't be doing that well."
Kushina sighed heavily, sinking into a chair as Shuurei set the pancakes on the table. "No, he's not. He's not doing well at all. He wasn't even before all this happened, and now…" she trailed off, viciously stabbing a stack of pancakes with her fork and plopping them on her plate. "Well, he had a bit of a wake-up call when Rin got herself kidnapped and almost died, and he's been doing a bit better than before that, more willing to open up, but…. But he joined Anbu and he's still taking the riskiest missions he can at the first opportunity. I can't exactly say anything, either, because the village needs all the able-bodied shinobi it can get right now to fill the mission quota. He's seriously depressed and it worries me."
"Has he been going to see the Yamanakas?" Shuurei asked, now very, very worried.
"Yeah. Well, not yet but he will. Rin pestered him into making an appointment, but I don't think he'll actually keep it unless someone else goes there with him to make sure he doesn't skip out."
Shuurei frowned grimly, eyes shadowed. "This life isn't kind to us, especially not to the children. It's so horrible that something like this is allowed to happen. Children just can't stay innocent anymore."
"Hopefully they will now that the war is over. Peace times are a lot less stressful and demanding. They won't be pushing the kids to graduate from the Academy as quickly as they can like they did with my team and Rin's."
"Indeed." Shuurei murmured sadly, then changed the subject. "Are you sure Tenzo can stay here, though? You're already swamped with taking care of one child, can you handle another? Can you afford to? Kids are expensive, even kids as industrious and independent as Tenzo, and especially kids going to the Academy."
"I-" she hesitated, biting her lip as she thought it over, doing the math in her head. "I'll manage." she finally replied.
"Kushina-"
"You really think I'm going to let any bit of my family slip away? He's your son, Firebird, I'd never just leave him to fend for himself on his own in some crappy genin apartment, even if things are a little tight around here for a while." Seeing Shuurei open her mouth to say something she scowled and cut her off. "No, I will not reconsider. I've made up my mind."
Shuurei scowled irritably. "I was going to say that I can help out financially, at least. I've started up a few businesses that have really taken off and actually, I'm kind of rolling in dough right now. You know those new restaurants serving pizza that have been really popular lately?"
Kushina's eye bulged, her mouth flopping open and shut like a fish on dry land. "That was you?!You invented pizza?! Oh kami-sama, that stuff is as good as ramen!" Tenzo, stunned, absently craned his neck to look out the window, scanning the skies for flying pigs. He never thought he'd hear an Uzumaki say that.
Shuurei shrugged nonchalantly, her mouth twitching into a slightly smug little smirk. "Well, you know I've always been good in the kitchen. It's really taken off, even spreading to some of the other villages, so I have plenty of cash to help support you 'til you get back on your feet."
Kushina's mouth slammed closed with an audible click, her lips pressed into a thin line. "I don't need charity, Firebird."
Shuurei rolled her eyes dramatically with an annoyed frown. "It's not charity, baka. It's me making sure my son and my family is provided for. Besides, I've filtered most of the money into the Uzumaki clan trust, and you're the de facto head. By all rights, legally the money belongs to you."
"But- wait, what?! I'm the clan head?! But- but you're older than me! And you've been the one bringing the clan back together!"
"Yeah, but you're the last remaining member of the Main Branch, and therefore in the immediate line of succession. Besides, I don't want to be clan head. I've got way too much stuff to do, to do my duties properly. Plus, it's all just way too troublesome."
"But-!"
"No buts!" Shuurei interrupted harshly. "I know you don't like it Kushina, but as both a clan leader and a mother you shouldn't let your pride get in the way of taking care of your precious people. Don't fall into the trap of becoming arrogantly prideful like other clans have. This is me, contributing to my clan, making sure my family is taken care of. Accept it. If you were in my position, you'd do the same."
"I- yeah. Yeah, you're right. I'm sorry." she all but whispered. "Thank you."
Shuurei just grinned at her. "No problem. I'll go to the bank later and make sure you can access the money, and that the accounts are all in your name. The clan fund has left us both with quite a bit of money even before I started adding to it, so we're quite well-off, which is good because when I bring the rest of the clan here we'll need it."
Argument finished, they concentrated on eating- Kushina making ecstatic noises every once in a while at the deliciousness of the food- and when they were done Shuurei turned to Kushina and asked, "Dragon-chan, is there a place for Tenzo-kun to train? Since he's going to join the Academy soon, it's best if he brush up on his aim a bit, especially if we want him to be placed with his age group."
Kushina's brow furrowed and she blinked, confused. "Placed? Won't he be entering the Academy with all the rest, taking the upcoming entrance exams? I assume that's why you came here now."
Shuurei shook her head. "No, of course not! That'd put him in a class with kids at least two years younger, and he'd be so out of place there. I mean, I know that kids do sometimes enter the Academy late, but that doesn't happen often and I highly doubt there'll be anyone his own age there. The whole reason we're doing this in the first place is so Tenzo can make some friends his own age and integrate himself properly with Konoha. At his level, he's already chunin material, he doesn't even need to go to the Academy at all."
"Wait, really? But he's only, what, ten years old?"
"Nine," Shuurei corrected, "but he's going to be ten very soon. I told you, he's a smart kid. A prodigy. He had genius intelligence from the beginning, which is probably why Orochimaru sought him out. It was only in the physical department where he was in any way inferior to a Kakashi of this age, and the Mokuton covers for that."
"But Kaa-san," Tenzo protested, "Why do I have to practice if I'm already past Academy level? I wanted to spend some more time with you, since you're going to be leaving soon."
Shuurei mussed his hair impishly as she walked past him, taking the breakfast dishes to the sink. "Because, sapling, while you might have above average knowledge and chakra control, you're still physically a kid, and you need to build up strength which means constantly training. You might have the muscle memory necessary for your taijutsu, but you don't have the strength or speed. They were retarded somewhat by that bastard's experiments, which took a toll on your body. Even four years of good food, proper medical treatment, and exercise hasn't erased that completely."
Tenzo was alarmed. His health was compromised? But he didn't feel weak at all, and she'd never mentioned this before! "B-but I can keep up with the other kids!" If he could keep up with a stampede of Uzumaki children in taijutsu practice, surely there can't be anything wrong!
"Yeah, and they're four years younger than you." She caught the slightly panicky look on his face and reassured him. "Don't worry, it isn't all that bad right now. Physically, you're just as healthy and fit as an average boy your age, but that's on civilian terms. As you are right now, you're not on the same level as kids in your age group who've been training for the past three years. It'll be hard, but if you put the work in it shouldn't take that long to catch up. So, Dragon-chan, anywhere for him to train?" She asked, addressing Kushina who was attempting to extract her hair from Naruto's fist.
She glanced up at them distractedly at the sound of her name. "Huh? Oh, right. Well, my back yard's pretty big and I set it up for basic training purposes so I could bring myself back up to snuff. What with giving birth and dealing with the aftermath of the Kyuubi extraction, I have a lot of work to do, and starting from the basics is the safest way to do it." She managed to wrest the strands away from Naruto's meaty little fist, only for his other hand to latch onto another fistful of scarlet.
"Ah, good. You do have kunai on you, don't you Tenzo-kun?" she asked in a sickly sweet voice edged with a subtle threat that said he better have weapons on him.
"Of course, Kaa-san!" he scoffed. That was the first thing she drilled into all of their heads: always have a weapon- preferably multiple weapons- on you and in reach at all times. He shuddered to remember what they all went through before that particular lesson stuck. "But… I wanted to spend some time with you before you had to leave." He hated to hear that whine in his voice that made him sound like an annoying brat.
Shuurei dried her hands after finishing the dishes, then grabbed her satchel from the living room table and went for her shoes. "You might as well go train, I have to speak to Hokage-sama anyway, then head over to the bank. It'll take a while, so you have a couple hours to train."
"Okay." he grumbled, then froze when Shuurei went over to him and planted a kiss on his forehead. She'd never done that before.
"You practice hard, sapling. I'll be back before you know it."
Eerie black eyes stared at Kakashi with an unsettling intensity. Kakashi, unnerved but too stubborn to show it, stared back impassively, though Tenzo could tell by the slight narrowing of his visible eye that something about him bothered Kakashi. Strange, just like that gate guard from earlier…
So this is Kakashi, the guy Obito-nii rambled on and on about whenever he spoke of Konoha. This is the one who has Obito's eye under his hitai-ate. He does seem rather impressive- despite the fact that Obito knows he's Anbu everything about his posture made him want to dismiss him- but somehow Tenzo was just a little disappointed. This is a broken man- no, not man. This is a child doing everything he can not to cry.
Then again, he did lose Obito-nii. He guesses he can understand that, a little. Obito-nii is the best.
Finally Kakashi relented, and though Tenzo kept the victorious smirk off his face inside he was laughing his ass off at the jounin Anbu member who was defeated by a ten year old. Is this how Kabuto feels, he wonders? Because if so, then it's no wonder he antagonizes Obito all the time.
"This is your relative?" he drawls, not buying it. Tenzo bristles at the condescension in his voice.
"He's the adopted son of a relative of mine." Kushina answers, a warning in her voice that he better be nice or she'd pound him into the dirt. "Tenzo-kun wants to be a shinobi, and my aunt isn't in a position to help him with that, so he's staying with me for now."
Kakashi huffs in annoyance. "Like we need another snot-nosed brat running around the house." he grumbled. "I'm not babysitting him, too."
Oh, Tenzo is going to enjoy completing the 'special mission' both Obito-nii and Kaa-san entrusted to him when he said his final goodbyes.
Pranking the hell out of Kakashi Hatake.
Kaa-san even gave him a special present to help him do it. Tenzo stroked the metal framing his face, a wave of homesickness sweeping over him already. Things are going to be different now. He doesn't have Kaa-san watching over him all the time now, or Obito-nii to help him through the nightmares and cheer him up when he's feeling down with his failed pranks. He doesn't have a swarm of redheaded children to play with when he feels lonely, and he's already wondering if Genta will be able to figure out math without him, or if Kinomi still needs help with that kata. Will they miss his bedtime stories? Konan-san does her best, but they always say they like his stories better, because he does the voices…
Tenzo rubbed at his eyes furiously, just barely managing to choke back a sob, embarrassed to be crying in front of strangers. Yes, she's Kaa-san's niece, and yes, he's Obito-nii's friend, but he doesn't know them. He doesn't know anyone in this place.
"Kakashi!" Kushina berates Kakashi from her position behind Kabuto. She puts a hand on his head and pulls him towards her protectively. "You made him cry!"
Kakashi shuffled in place uncomfortably under Kushina's heated glare, then croaked, "I- uh- sorry, kid." he murmured guiltily, the implacable, impervious front he put up before completely shredded in the face of Kushina's wrath. He shifted in place a little, then reached into his weapons holster to pull out a box.
Tenzo blinked when Kakashi offered him a stick of dango, then glanced back up at his face and noticed the way his eyebrows were drawn together slightly, his jaw clenched. Obito-nii always said he was a tough bastard to read and he never seemed to react to anything, but either Obito is just really horrible at reading body language (possible, because as much as he loves Obito-nii, he's a little… dense, sometimes) or Kakashi's changed in the time since Obito 'died'. He's not a total asshole like the stories Nii-san told him, just… awkward. Kabuto was like that, sometimes.
So he accepted the dango, smiled up at him a little and made a split-second decision. "Thanks… Kashi-nii."
This time Tenzo does allow himself to grin at Kakashi's spastic twitching at the term of endearment. Behind him, Kushina is doubled over laughing. Oh yes, messing with Kakashi is going to be fun.
Tenzo has a nightmare that night. It certainly wasn't the first- especially since he moved to Konoha two weeks ago- but this time it was… different than usual.
Normally his nightmares are always about his time in Orochimaru's lab. Needles injecting drugs into his system, knives carving open his flesh, watching the others come back bleeding and broken, or not at all. Silent and not so silent screams as the others drowned sucking down air and beat against the glass, being helpless to do anything to save them, the lights going out one by one, leaving him alone and dying in the darkness…. The most frequent and unnerving of them all is the one where his family- Shuurei, Obito, Nagato, Yahiko, Konan, and the Uzumaki kids- are the ones suffocating, where they come back with scars and empty eyes and the tell-tale Y-incision of a live autopsy, where he watches helplessly as they die slow, painful deaths begging him to save them.
As horrific as those dreams are, this one inspires an entirely different kind of terror. In this one Kaa-san leaves him and never comes back. In this one, she says that her job is done now and he's never going to see him again because she did her part already. That caring for him was just a job, just something she did out of pity. She doesn't really love him. She has other kids to raise that can easily take his place.
"You're nothing special. You're just a huge disappointment. I bet Kabuto will be a better ninja than you, or Kasumi. You were just a waste of my time. They actually deserve my love, while you? You're just a broken, useless freak."
He wakes up gasping, heart racing, and immediately hugs his pillow tight and cries into it, his whole body shaking from the force of his sobs. Is it true? Does Kaa-san not love him anymore? If she did, then why did she send him away? He wasn't as smart as Kabuto, wasn't a taijutsu genius like Kasumi, and he couldn't learn seals the way all the rest of the kids could. They were so much better than him, why did she need a useless, damaged kid like him hanging around anyway?
Gradually he becomes aware that someone else is there, but he couldn't bring himself to be embarrassed or even care. There's a hand on his back rubbing in slow, gentle circles and a soft feminine voice pitched low and coaxing. Desperate for comfort, he lets go of the pillow and latches onto her, burying his face into her shoulder. Breathing in, he smells freshly baked bread, ink, something almost mossy, and the pervasive scent of an ocean breeze. It's different and new, but similar enough to Shuurei that his body relaxes subconsciously, allowing him to gradually calm down.
No longer shaking, his sobs reduced to exhausted sniffles, he can finally hear what the woman- Kushina- is saying. "… and when I find that snake fucker I'm going to rip his balls off and leave his limbless body in the Forest of Death! Then I'll take the bloody scraps and give his bones to the Inuzuka dogs to gnaw on and-"
"K-Kushina-san?" he croaks, mortified and slightly scared. It stands to reason, he supposes, that a fully mature Uzumaki would be far more terrifying than Kasumi, a four year old that despite her age manages to scare the living daylights out of him sometimes.
Immediately the anger drains right out of her. "Oh, hey Tenzo-kun, you feeling better now?" She says it just like Shuurei does- not condescending or pitying, almost causal even, but with an edge of something maternal and protective that makes him feel safe.
"I-I'm sorry." he sputters, trying to pull away, but she wasn't having any of that and clutched at him even tighter.
She scoffs at him like the whole notion of an apology is ridiculous. Which it probably is to her, judging by the usual Uzumaki response to such things. "There's nothing to be sorry for, baka. Everyone has their bad days, you know. Ninja especially. I've had my fair share of nightmares myself, and I don’t see them stopping anytime soon. With everything you went through, you of all people have the right to be messed up about it."
"It wasn't- it wasn't about… that time, though." he whispered quietly, the image of Shuurei's disdainful, sneering face and her back as she walked away playing over and over in his mind. Useless, disappointment, freak. Intellectually, he knew it was ridiculous and Kaa-san would never do or say anything like that, but…
"You miss her." Kushina supplied, her voice barely audible, a volume Tenzo wouldn't have thought her capable of earlier that day.
"Why did she have to go? Does… does she really love me?" He hated how needy he sounded, how utterly pathetic. She has to love him, she has to! Otherwise, why would she be doing so much for him?
Kushina was quiet for a moment, then shifted him around so he could see her face by the dim moonlight shining through the nearby window. "Shuurei… for as long as I've known her, Shuurei's always been sad. Always quiet and desperate and lonely. She got better at hiding it when she got older, but it never really went away, no matter how close I got or how hard I tried to make her smile. But Tenzo, when I saw her with you the other day, that's the happiest I've ever seen her. It's not easy to get her to open up, but when she does, she will do anything to protect the ones she loves. Anything. And she most definitely loves you to pieces. If she brought you here, it's because this is the safest place for you to be. She does love you and she would never abandon you, understand?"
Yeah, he knows that. He does, it just… felt a lot better to hear someone else say it, too.
Kushina smiled abruptly, the serious atmosphere shattering under the force of her smile. "I'm kind of jealous, dattebane. I couldn't help her nearly as much as you have." Ruffling his hair affectionately (what was it with women and messing with his hair? Shuurei was practically obsessed with it and insisted he keep it long) she sat up and motioned for him to do the same. "Come on, let's go get some hot chocolate. I don't think you're going to get back to sleep any time soon and nothing's better for that than hot chocolate."
He rubbed at his eyes with the sleeves of his pajamas and nodded, untangling himself from the blanket and wincing when his feet met the cold hardwood floor. He padded after her into the kitchen, and was surprised to find Kakashi already there, sitting at the counter with his own steaming cup of hot chocolate. "Kashi-nii?" he glanced at the clock and found it to be only three o'clock in the morning, a ridiculous time to be up even for early morning training.
Kakashi flinched, his head jerking up a little like he'd been nodding off a moment ago, and turned to glare at him in irritation. There were dark bags under his sole visible eye, he noticed, and his skin was slightly paler than he had been earlier that day.
"Up again, Kakashi? That's not good. What was it this time- Obito, Rin, or Minato?"
He glanced at Kushina then back at Tenzo, hesitant, but reluctantly answered. "Obito." Kushina seemed pleasantly surprised that he answered.
One side of her mouth pulled down, eyes wistful. "It is getting around to that time of year, huh. I still can't believe he's been gone a year. I… I miss the little brat. Still, you should take something, Kashi-kun. You can't keep losing sleep like this. Eventually it's going to start affecting your missions." Unsaid was that he might not make it back at all.
"I'm fine." Kakashi insisted almost angrily, something that didn't sit too well with Tenzo.
"No, you're not." he interjected sternly. Kakashi drew back in surprise and scowled thunderously.
"And what do you know?" Kakashi sneered condescendingly.
Tenzo scoffed. "Anyone with eyes can see that! And I know a lot about things like this. You know, carrying on about things you can't fix and lashing out at the people you have left isn't going to bring them back!"
Kakashi went completely still. "Shut up." he hissed, his voice freezing over. "You don't know anything!"
"Kakashi!" Kushina snapped. "Calm down. Tenzo-kun more than anyone knows how you feel right now."
Kakashi leveled her a betrayed glare and promptly turned on his heel and flew out the window. Kushina, rubbing at her own eyes that were similarly dark rimmed, slumped into a chair, limbs flopping out comically. "Don't be too offended, Tenzo-kun. He's not actually that bad a guy. Rin and I have been working on him and usually he's a lot better, but with Obito's anniversary coming up… well, none of us are at our best."
"Yeah, I can see that." he said, measuring the color in her face. "What are you doing up, anyway?"
She laughed once without humor. "The same reason the two of you were up. Looks like everyone in this house is an insomniac." As if on cue, Naruto took that exact moment to alert them to the fact that he was displeased. "Looks like I jinxed myself." Kushina groaned, moving to stand back up again.
"No, don't bother." Tenzo motioned for her to stay sitting. "I've got it."
She shot him a grateful smile. "Thanks."
Once again Naruto stopped crying the minute Tenzo had him settled in his arms, his screams dulling to a lower whimper of displeasure. He wasn't wet or smelly, so Tenzo brought him back to the kitchen and started rummaging in the cupboard he saw Kushina pull the formula out of before and started on making a bottle as he bounced gently to pacify the fussing baby.
"Y'know, you're pretty good at that for a nine year old, dattebane." Kushina commented idly as Tenzo not only worked to make a bottle but started preparations for breakfast.
He shrugged. "Most of the survivors Kaa-san managed to save from Uzushio during the attack were babies at the time since she concentrated on children before anybody else, and I helped out a lot. You think Naruto is bad? Try being in a room of twenty something hungry Uzumaki babies." he shuddered. "I still have nightmares about that. The Shadow Clone jutsu is truly a godsend." Bottle done and wanting to get a move on with breakfast since late nights- or extremely early mornings- and sleep deprivation made him ravenous, he passed a content Naruto sucking down his bottle to Kushina and turned back to the stove.
"…Twenty?" Kushina squeaked, eyes wide as she adjusted her hold on the baby. "There's really that many? But wait, how is that possible? She's been travelling for years now, no way can she drag along a small army of babies with her! Who's taking care of them while she's gone?"
Tenzo cringed, not having meant to give out that information. They were in a village after all, Konoha- home to Danzo the patriotic traitor. There's no telling who's listening. That Root member at the meeting with the Hokage saw enough to be suspicious at least of her fuinjutsu skills, and if they escaped capture even after Kaa-san sold him out…. He could very well have them under watch already. The thought fed his mounting paranoia, the result of being surrounded by unknowns with the knowledge that several of them would be after him not only for the Mokuton, but even just for the information he has on Shuurei and her operations.
So he merely smiled mysteriously in the way that Obito-nii frequently informs him is infuriating and says, "Kaa-san is a talented person. She has her ways."
Kushina grumbled but resigned with a huff and a curious glance into the bowl at the mixture he was expertly beating. "What are you making?"
Tenzo put a hand to his chest in mock surprise. "What, you don't recognize your favorite breakfast food? And after you pestered Kaa-san so much for the recipe…"
"Pancakes?" she exclaimed, jostling Naruto briefly for a moment who protested for a moment before Kushina adjusted her hold on him again and he went back to guzzling down the bottle. "You know how to make pancakes, have been here for two weeks, and didn't even tell me?!"
"Ah, sorry." he murmured, hand migrating to the back of his neck. "I guess I forgot?" He expertly flipped a pancake over, enjoying the sizzling sound of the batter cooking. The bacon was done, so he turned off that burner and drained the grease into a cup to be taken care of later so it wouldn't clog the drain when it solidifies and tipped the crispy bacon onto a paper towel covered plate. Kushina reached out to sneak a slice, but Tenzo batted her hand away with a tut. "Wait until everything is ready, Kushina-san."
He finished cooking right as the sun came up, brilliant colors painting the sky visible outside the kitchen window, and they sat down to eat contentedly as they watched the sunrise. It was a calm, peaceful moment where everything was perfect and it was… cathartic to Tenzo, soothing over the lingering negative feelings he had from his nightmare. He finished first, and since Kushina was having trouble eating while holding Naruto he took him from her. Naruto, of course, immediately fisted his hands in Tenzo's hair with a happy gurgle and he rolled his eyes- lamenting over the fact that apparently, his hair would always be a target for the rest of his life- but smiled anyway, wiggling a finger in Naruto's face to get him to grab that instead.
Kushina, having just finished stuffing her face, watched them with no small amount of fondness. "You really do like kids, don't you?"
"Yeah, I do." he answered, smiling down at Naruto as he squealed under Tenzo's tickling fingers.
Kushina groaned. "Why does he have to be so perfect?" she asked, eyes turned skywards. "It's just not fair that he's so perfect! He cooks and he's great with kids and he's polite! Why can't he be my kid?"
Tenzo blushed, turning around to set Naruto down in his playpen to hide his face. "Ah, I'm flattered, Kushina-san, but I'm not perfect."
"You make pancakes. If you're not perfect, then you're pretty damn- ahem, darn close."
"Ah, well, Kaa-san taught me how to cook. I enjoy it, especially since it was something we could do together. She has a lot of odd dishes really, but they're all incredible. She's a very good cook. Konan-chan… not so much. She tried, and she was certainly competent at following directions in a recipe, but when she tried to get creative…." He winced, remembering when she'd had Yahiko try one of her experiments. They hadn't heard from him the rest of the day, after he'd rushed off to the bathroom and Konan went and had to drag him back to their bedroom two hours later to sleep it off. It must've really been bad, too, because Yahiko was famous for his… unique tastes. He once ate a batch of charcoal briquette cookies, Tenzo's first attempt at baking. "It really bugs her, too. Especially seeing how good me and Nagato are at it. She has this strange fixation on the 'ideal kunoichi', probably because where she grew up they couldn't waste resources on being elegant and pretty, and with being surrounded by men most of the time- since the majority of shinobi in that country are male because of their previous leader's extreme misogynistic tendencies- she started, and I quote, 'losing touch with her femininity'."
Plopping the breakfast dishes into the already prepared sink of soapy water, she started washing. "That poor girl. But…Konan? Yahiko? Nagato? Who are they?"
Oops. Well, he doesn't think it'd hurt to tell her a little about his three other older siblings, if he made sure to be vague. "Oh, they're some people Kaa-san ran across on her travels. She saved their lives, so they feel like they owe her a debt and they watch over the kids for her when she can't be there. They're really great, though Yahiko is a little… well, odd. Nagato's pretty quiet most of the time and very polite when he does talk, which can get a little intimidating. It's incredibly hard to get him to show emotion, believe me, I've tried. Konan is really great, really nice and patient most of the time, but she can get real scary sometimes, especially when Yahiko slips up and swears around us kids. She and Yahiko are totally in love, it's kinda gross sometimes how gushy they can get." He paused, considering, and then added on, "If you could not mention those names like, anywhere, that'd be great. You see, the man Kaa-san saved them from thinks they're dead, and if they find out they aren't… he'll come after them again. He's a very powerful man, and if he finds out it wouldn't be just them he'd go after."
Kushina nodded. "I understand."
"I mean it! Not anyone!"
"Okay, okay already! Geesh." she exclaimed, almost insulted. "Like I'd put my Firebird at risk like that."
Tenzo bit his lip. "Sorry. It's just… they're really important to me, you know? My Anikis and Aneki." Plus, just a chance stray word to Jiraiya and he'd be demanding to see them, which is not a good idea if they want to keep the Warren a secret. "Hey, why do you call Kaa-san Firebird anyway?"
"Huh?" Pulling the plug on the dishwater, Kushina turned towards him as she wiped off her pruny hands. "Oh, that. Because of her Summons, of course." He stared at her blankly. "What, have you never met her boss summons, Gaulrung?"
But the boss Summons for the rabbits is Yukanna… wait, no, he'd forgotten but she does have another Summoning Contract, doesn't she? He's only seen it once because he's been in the Summons realm for most of these past six years, but he'd seen her summon a bird once, to send a message. "No, I haven't."
Kushina smirked and then started giggling, the sort of giggle one giggles when one is anticipating some entertaining trouble on the horizon for someone else. It's astonishing and vaguely unsettling how similar to Kasumi she is. "Oh, Gaulrung's not gonna like that. Not at all."
Tenzo cocked his head to the side, curious. "What kind of name is Gaulrung, anyway?"
"You'll have to ask Firebird, she's the one who named him. The Avian Contract has been handed down in her family for generations, and they have this tradition. You see, every time a new summoner is born to her family, when they turn six years old they're brought to the Summons Realm and told to choose one egg amongst the latest clutch. The bird that is born from that egg will be the new king or queen of the birds. The summoner then names the hatchling, and Firebird decided to name her Phoenix King Gaulrung for some reason. This ceremony is a symbolic mark of the loyalty and trust between the Birds and the summoner, then the ceremony marks the summoner in turn with the golden cast to their eyes."
Tenzo's eyes widened. "So that's why her eyes are so strange! I had no idea. She never told me any of this." He pouted a bit at that, dismayed at having missed such an important part of Kaa-san's life.
"Yep, that's why. The tradition apparently came from a time when their first summoner reverse summoned themselves to the Aviary. See, the Birds are a very proud species for the most part and thought that contracting themselves to humans was beneath them, and thus refused. The summoner was persistent however and ended up staying a number of days in the Summons Realm, during which he happened to come across a clutch of eggs as they hatched. Most of them did so safely, but as is sometimes the case in nature one of the eggs had an abnormally thick shell that the baby bird couldn't break through. The adult birds supervising the hatching marked it as being stillborn, but the summoner could sense the living chakra inside and knew that the fledgling just needed some help and dashed forwards to break the baby out.
"As a mark of the life debt that baby bird owed to the summoner, the other birds allowed him to name the fledgling- a very big deal to Avians- and a bond was formed between them that gave that first summoner the golden cast to his eyes. After that, the Phoenix King of the time grew tired of the summoner's presence and demanded he leave, refusing to enter into a contract, and it was many years before the summoner saw that fledgling again. By that time, the fledgling had grown to become the strongest of the Phoenixes and even the Phoenix King himself, but even with all the many years that had passed never had he forgotten the debt he owed to the human that saved his life, and so he consented to forming a contract with him that would not only give the summoner the ability to summon phoenixes, but also any species that falls under their domain as rulers of the Avians, a Royal Contract."
Tenzo hung onto her every word with rapt attention, eyes full of awe. To think, Kaa-san's family has such a history…. "I never knew that the Uzumaki had a summons animal, much less something as amazing as this!"
Kushina smiled, fondly amused at Tenzo's wide-eyed wonder at the story and insatiable curiosity. "Ah, but the Phoenixes aren't the Uzumaki summons animal, they're the Tsumeito summons animal. That's why their clan has that regenerative ability- because of the Phoenix's ability to rise from the ashes. It's present in all the members of their clan, though there's only ever one- maybe two- summoners at a time. The direct summoners, though, regenerate twice as fast as the average clan member. Some people in Uzushio speculated that the people with Shuurei's condition come about when the Tsumeito heir has the Uzumaki blood and inherits their kekei genkai too, and because of the extra strength dose of Tsumeito paired with the dominant Uzumaki genes for our vitality kekei genkai the body simply regenerates new cells too quickly- the limit of the number of times a body is able to regenerate cells removed by the Uzumaki vitality. Personally, I think they're right, because four out of the five 'Immortals', as they call them (though that's a misnomer because they don't live forever) were Tsumeito heirs. Shuurei's father was the Head of the Tsumeito clan, so she inherited the contract from him." Kushina smiled wistfully, eyes distant. "I still remembered how funny-looking he was with those tiny red feathers in his hair…"
"Feathers?!" Kaa-san has feathers in her hair?!
"Yep, feathers. Tiny, fluffy downy feathers hidden in their hair. They're one of those traits the summoner gets from the contract. Shuurei's lucky that because she inherited the Uzumaki red coloring, they blend in with her hair and aren't noticeable. See, her parents' marriage was a political one designed to bring the two clans closer together when the political climate was a bit rocky almost thirty years ago. Her father was the leader of the Tsumeito and her mother the second daughter of the Uzumaki Main Branch. I'm descended from her mother's brother, the first born son and heir to the Uzumaki clan. She's my aunt because while the Uzumaki heir- my grandmother- conceived my mother right away, her mother only got pregnant with Shuurei very late in life, almost at the end of her child-bearing years and a scant five years before I was born, the granddaughter of Shuurei's mom's older brother. Make sense?"
Tenzo blinked, thrown by the sudden delve into the Uzumaki clan genealogy. "Um, yeah, I think so. Huh." He was still processing Shuurei's apparently extensive clan history. "I never knew Summoning could have such a huge impact on both the summoned and the summoners. That they can make actual physical changes…"
"Yeah, a lot of summons do either in special circumstances or over time. Take the Inuzuka and the Aburame for example. Their clans' special traits come from summoning contracts to Beetles and Dogs respectively, and though they've lost the actual contract over time and can't actually summon their contracted animals from the Summons Realm, they still have that bond with them that gives them the traits they're famous for. That's the origin of the Inuzuka's ability to talk to dogs, and their ninken are descended from a summons animal that somewhere in the past decided to stay in our Realm. The Aburame insects are the same. They're not entirely physical, which is why they're able to live inside their host's body without causing organ failure from blocking an important artery or something. The kikaichu are entirely spiritual when inside their host's body. The… companions actually have to bond with them, because they need the steady flow of chakra their partner provides to live. Think of it like this- to materialize a summons in this Realm normally, you need a steady flow of chakra, right?"
"Right."
"Well, even though they're born and raised in the human realm and have the blood of animals from our Realm in them, they still need that constant flow of chakra. Because they were born in this Realm and have the blood of animals from here they have no connection to the Summons Realm, but they still need that stream of chakra. An Aburame colony without a host and an Inuzuka ninken without a partner will actually die without them."
Tenzo exploded into excited questions. "That… is fascinating. Wow! That's so cool! How many times have bonds like this been formed? How do you even make a contract like that, is it always the result of some sort of life-debt or do the summons animals agree to it? What sort of benefits do they get from it? Are there any detriments to a bond like that?" This was so interesting! He has so many questions! He wonders if there's been any research done on the subject. Are there any books about summons that talk about this?
"I don't know, sorry Tenzo-kun. Information like that is kept close to the vest so enemies of the clan can't find a way to get around their abilities. I can tell you that the Uzumaki have something like that, though. Like the Tsumeito, we have a contract handed down from generation to generation, the Fox Summons." Tenzo abruptly choked on air. Kushina continued on, ignoring him. "See, that's why most of the clan has red hair, and also why little Naru-chan," she poked his cheek and he cooed happily at her, "has these whisker marks. Only the heir to the Uzumaki clan gets them as a symbol of their ability to contract with the Foxes, and since I'm the last of the Main Branch of the Uzumaki clan- Shuurei's disqualified because of her preexisting bond to the Phoenixes- that makes Naruto the heir. However, the clan wasn't expecting to be wiped out like it did when they sent me here to become a jinchuuriki, otherwise they'd never have sent a Main Branch member. Because of the bijuu that was sealed inside of me- the Kyuubi- that's now inside of Naruto, it's dangerous for either of us to form that contract because the Kyuubi's chakra would leak through that bond and corrupt and mutate the Foxes. Unfortunately, unless Naru-chan has at least two children when he grows up- one to become the next jinchuuriki, another to contract with the Foxes- the contract will be lost."
"What effects do you get from the contract, besides the red hair and whisker marks?"
"Well, like the Tsumeito it's the origin of our kekei genkai." A huge smirk graced her upturned lips. "Our legends say that when our first summoner tried to make a contract, the Boss Fox made a bet with her that she couldn't beat her in a riddle contest. Foxes are naturally lucky and exceedingly clever, you see, and she thought she couldn't lose. When she did, the Boss Fox of the time was so impressed that in addition to forming a contract, she adopted the summoner into the clan and they became blood-sisters, which formed the bond that dyed the summoner's hair red, gave her the tell-tale whiskers, increased her physical energy, and apparently blessed us with luck. That's why we heal so quickly- because we have more physical energy than most people. Contrary to what the majority of shinobi believe, the hardest part about increasing your chakra capacity isn't the spiritual energy, but the physical energy. Spiritual energy is limitless and comes from the soul, you get it just by living. That's also why the Uzumaki have such massive chakra reserves, because our physical energy is just naturally higher than most people."
"A bet, huh? Makes sense for foxes. That really is too bad for Naru-chan, they sound like an awesome summons."
Kushina smiled and stood up, stretching, hands locked together overhead as her joints popped. "They really were. Ah well, I'll just have to make sure Naru-chan gives me plenty of grandkids when the time comes- which means a lot of work for me if he takes after his father in that department. Did you know I had to bribe Jiraiya into tying him up and dragging him there to get him to our first date? He's such a wuss, dattebane."
The thought of the Fourth Hokage so afraid to go on a date he had to be dragged there just about blew Tenzo's mind, and he promptly dissolved into gut-busting laughter. The Fourth Hokage, a wuss! Ha! The man who faced and took down an entire army by himself couldn't bring himself to ask a girl out!
"Yeah, and when he finally got there he ended up accidentally flipping himself over the counter into a huge pot of ramen and got stuck! Luckily it was cold since it was the new leek and daifuku flavor Teuchi was trying out that not even I could stomach, otherwise he'd probably have given himself third degree burns in some… unfortunate places."
"Hahahahahahahahahahaha! S-stop! Please! I can't breathe!" Tenzo gasped, his sides hurting.
Kushina grinned impishly, a wicked gleam in her eye. "And then there was that time on our second date when he ended up giving himself a concussion from walking into trees continuously for an hour. I wanted to stop and get him checked out at the hospital, but he just kept insisting he was fine and didn't want to ruin our date! I ended up having to knock him out when he started having trouble walking in a straight line and carry him to the hospital myself, princess style. Yoshino ended up seeing us on the way there and it was all over the village the next day. Needless to say, it was a long time before we went to the park on a date again.That man is so stubborn." she said it in such a way that 'stubborn' sounded like a synonym for 'stupid', but it was in good humor.
Continuing her stretching, she dropped down into a split, flexing the muscles in her side by reaching overhead with one arm for the opposite side. "Anyway, I'm glad you feel better now, Tenzo-kun. Nightmares really suck, it doesn't do you any good to dwell on them, dattebane."
"You told me all that to distract me from my nightmare?" he asked once he was able to breathe again.
"Best cure for depression is a distraction, I've always found." Pulling out of her last stretch, she said, "Hey, I've got some training to do, getting back in top condition and all. How about we spar?"
Suddenly, he was nervous. "Me, against a jounin?" he squeaked then winced, embarrassed at the high pitch of his voice.
She scoffed. "Pshhh, don't worry, I won't hurt you. Too badly, anyway. I'm still recovering, so I'll only be able to go half-speed at most. Probably won't even use that much. So, you in or not?"
…He guessed it might be a good idea, to get used to jounin speeds and fighting against superior enemies. He was still nervous though. "I guess."
So he followed her through the patio door and into the back yard, moving Naruto's playpen so he was right next to the open door and they could hear him if he cried. Behind the house was a large, obviously well-used clearing that was actually about the size of a training ground. Though the grass for the entire clearing was cut short, there was a large circle of compacted earth that was obviously meant to serve as a taijutsu ring. Off to the side he could see some straw dummies hanging from trees, already punched full of holes.
"Alright," Kushina started, taking up the position closest to the house, "rules are: no blood or broken bones. If we have any major injuries we stop the fight immediately. Got it?" She shifted into an unrecognizable stance when he nodded, and he followed suit. "Whirlpool?" she remarked, surprised, then considered. "Huh, I guess that makes sense, what with your age and current size. Whirlpool is designed for physically inferior opponents, after all. Now, let's see how good you are!" And with a war cry she throws herself into the fray.
One second she's there, the next he's spinning around on reflex to catch an overhead blow from behind, countering with a leg sweep on automatic. She moves to deflect it, but it's just a feint and while she's distracted he springs upwards as fast as he can and slams his palm into her chin, making her lose her balance. While she's disoriented he slips in close and goes for a throw, but she's slightly bigger than Shuurei- the person he's used to sparring with- so it's harder than he expects. When he fumbles the throw she reverses it on him and the next minute he's flying through the air.
He catches the fall right, but the impact still jars his legs causing them to sting, but there's no time to recover because she sends a roundhouse kick at his head and he ducks, feeling her foot swipe through his hair his hair, missing him by millimeters. His foot slides backwards, intent on getting some room, but he wasn't expecting her to suddenly drop to the ground for a leg sweep from the opposite side and he crumples. He's not on the ground a second before he has to roll to the side to avoid her fist- which oh dear kami it left a crater! This is her holding back?!- and rather clumsily- he winces, thinking of what Shuurei would do to him if she saw that- staggers to his feet, leaping backwards to get some room and recuperate a bit.
She allows the pause, tense and still in a shuto stance, and this time it's him who takes the initiative. Dashing across the distance, he launches a simultaneous left straight punch and right reverse punch to the solar plexus, trying to take advantage of the human instinct to defend the face before all else. It seems like she knows that trick though, because she knocks his straight to the side and catches his reverse, spinning to the side in a simple three-step dodge to the side and bends his arms backwards in a perfectly executed hold, using it as leverage to force him to the ground, and plants her foot on his back to keep him there.
By this point he's gasping, hearing his heartbeat in his ears, and far too tired to muscle his way out of the hold- though he's pretty sure he couldn't even if he was at one hundred percent, because he sucks at grappling. So he concedes. "I-I give!" he manages to choke out after a moment and goes slack the moment she lets up on the pressure, dropping to the ground face-first, his head turned to the side so he wouldn't inhale any grass. "Damn," he says once he manages to catch his breath, "That was intense."
She plops herself down next to him. It irritates him a bit that she's not even breathing hard, even though he knows full well she shouldn't be, as a jounin."You're not so bad yourself. Hey, did I see some Tide style in there?"
He rolled onto his back so he could look her in the face. "Yeah, Kaa-san said that I have the right build for more hard-hitting attacks when I grow and develop some more muscle, so she started me in on Tide. Still not very good at it though."
She nodded. "Yeah, I could see that. The sudden change certainly caught me off guard, but your stances were shaky and once I got used to it, it was easy to take advantage of. You need to work on that, but the transition itself was flawless. If you straighten that out, it'd give you a great advantage in battle. Not many people can suddenly change styles like that. Combine them, yes. Completely change from one to another? No."
With a groan he pulls himself up to a sitting position, already feeling the first pangs of soreness, his limbs weak as a wet noodle. "What was that style you used? I didn't recognize it."
She gave a short laugh. "You wouldn't. It's a mishmash of various styles. When you move up in the ranks and get more fighting experience under your belt, that tends to happen. Some of it's Tide style-" he nodded in acknowledgement, having recognized a few movements reminiscent of the style during the fight "-some of it's the Strong Fist style, but most of it's the Dancing Leaves style, with a few tricks here and there I don't even know where they came from."
"Those last two, are they Konoha-specific styles?" Obito-nii only knew some of the Academy standard- Oaken Defense- and very little of the Uchiha's Interceptor style by sight. He'd watched Obito-nii's lessons with Shuurei when he first started working on his taijutsu.
"Yeah. The Strong Fist style was actually invented by a taijutsu genius just a few years ago, a little green weirdo by the name of Maito Gai, and he offered to teach it to me since it suits my strengths pretty well. I'm more familiar with Dancing Leaves though." She stretched her arms with a pop, then turned her head to look at him, remembering something. "That throw early in, you botched that pretty badly. You need to work on throwing bigger opponents."
"I can throw bigger opponents!" he protested, thinking of the hours and hours he spent practicing with stone training dummies. "You're just heavier than I expected, so I was caught by surprise!"
Kushina suddenly began to emit a threatening aura and his mouth snapped closed with an audible click as he realized what he just said. "Did you just call me fat?" she asked, venomously sweet, Killing Intent pouring off of her in waves. Oh, crap.
"I- uh- I didn't mean it that way!" he yelped, springing to his feet with an agility he was surprised he was still able to manage. "It's just- I usually train with Shuurei and I'm used to her, so fighting with you-"
To his dumbfounded horror, her hair actually began to lift into the air and whirl about her head like nine violent tails, and he'd swear up, down, and sideways that her malevolent aura was actually visible. "Are you saying Shuurei's skinnier than me? Are you saying that compared to her, I'm fat? Is that what you're saying?"
Slowly he began to back away, his hands raised defensively. "No, I didn't mean it like-!"
She cracked her knuckles- loudly- and immediately he shut up, swallowing nervously as she made a clone and sent it into the house to stand by Naruto's playpen, smirking evilly. "I suggest you start running."
With a terrified scream he ran, yelling mangled apologies behind him as the… the she-demon chased after him. Sadly enough, he was used to this by now from his hours running away from Kasumi the many times he'd accidentally insulted her in a similar manner.
Dashing around a corner and into Konoha proper, he leaped over a food cart to slow her down only for his terror to increase two-fold when she promptly punched through it (behind him he heard the distressed cart owner mournfully wail, "My cabbages!"). As he forced himself to go even faster, the ringing laughter of several ninja passing overhead on the roofs ringing in his ears, the only thought in his head was: "Why are girls so terrifying?!"