Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

This never should have happened.

Akiiro Kōyō was sitting in front of her mirror in the bathroom. One mistake. One slip up and everything she had worked so hard for was ruined. Her hands were shaking, forming a tight fist in order to control the fit of pure rage that was going through her body right now. She couldn’t lose it, it would give her away and the last thing she needed was for the anbu to get suspicious of her. Besides, she had at least two other months, perhaps even four, before it started to show, and she didn’t want to compromise that. It was bad enough that she realised it too late to get rid of it. Gritting her teeth, she glared at her reflection, making the promise that this would change nothing of her life.

“One year. I give it one year and then I’ll go back to my life and pretend it never happened.”

And if she got hurt during a mission and lost the thing? All the better. Kōyō was a kunoichi from Konoha. She was not a mother. Life would prove her right.

Momiji was born the day of autumn, just as the first leaf of the Akiiro courtyard maple tree had turned red. Her grandmother, Kaede, named her after that red maple tree leaf and took her in her arms with a soft smile as the newborn’s mother dragged herself out of the room without a second look.

“Welcome into our family, Momiji. I promise the Akiiro will take good care of you.”

The little girl grew up without a mother, or a father. Sometime, she would look at a happy family in the street with her bright amber golden eyes and wonder why her mother refused to look at her with anything but a sneer, or why she didn’t have a father. But most of the time it was alright, because her family, the Akiiro clan, was there. Her grandmother especially always took care of her, teaching her the names of the trees in the courtyard, drinking jasmine green tea with dorayaki sitting outside and watching the seasons in the garden.

“Grandma, does my mother hate me?”

Grandma Kaede stayed silent for a while, a sad smile on her lips and gazing in the distance. Then her eyes fell on her granddaughter, with her big innocent eyes, shining with Gonkgo color, a bright autumn gold. Her face surrounded by bright sunset tousled hair, with little braids intertwined with ribbons from when she had let the older girl play with her hair, looking like a firework or a lion mane. She was adorable in her white summer kimono embroidered with maple leaf. She loved that child from the bottom of her heart.

“Koyo is a selfish woman. She may have given birth to you, sweet bean, but she is no mother of yours.”

Momiji simply accepted that fact, trusting her grandmother, but also understanding in a rare show of wisdom from such a young child that not everyone could be as loving and caring as her Kaede-baasan.

“Is it because she is selfish that she looks so unhappy all the time?” She then asked.

“She decided very young that she wanted one thing, and had worked toward that end ever since. I believe the closer she gets to achieving her goal, the less satisfied she feels.”

“Then, she should find a new one.” Momiji declared with finality as she took a sip of her tea.

(Jasmine was her favorite, she could drink liter of it without getting tired of the taste. Drinking tea with her grandmother while looking at the sunset falling on their garden was the thing she cherished the most in her heart. She might have only been five but she knew that the peace she felt right now should be treasured, as it wouldn’t last much longer. Just like the sun set, the first peaceful years of her life would soon end.)

(Because she was a daughter of the Akiiro clan, and they were a clan of ninja.)

Kaede smiled appreciatively at the simple yet wise comment. It was such a shame that her daughter had never learned to let go. She was too stubborn to allow changes in her heart, and this was her greatest mistake. Because she couldn’t love Momiji, and that in itself was proof of the dryness of her heart.

“Do you have one, sweet bean?” Kaede asked.

The lion mane girl took the time to think about it as the sunset reflected in her eyes. In her hand she could feel the warmth of her tea cup, and the flagrance of the jasmine was tickling her nose. The soft breeze was blowing in her hair, and she could hear the bells in the trees peal.

“I want to protect the peacefulness of the sunset.” She eventually answered. “So that every little girl and little boy can feel like I feel right now.”

Kaede hummed softly, pride swelling in her chest. Her little girl was so wise !

Chapter Text

She was seven when she started at the academy. Before that, she had only ever interacted with people from her clan, and was a little intimidated at the idea of meeting new people. She knew that not everyone was entitled to like her - she had grown up with her mother hating her gut - but she didn’t know how to interact with children her age.

The first thing she noticed when Kaede-baasan dropped her at the school was that the other children were incredibly lively, and noisy. Most of them at least. She watched with wide curious eyes as the crowd of her future classmate started to interact with each other. She could recognize some clan marks or physical features. She could see a boy with dark messy hair and red marks on his face running everywhere like he couldn’t stand still, and other boys started to follow him starting an impromptu game of tag. Some girls were giggling looking at another boy, one dark hair girl was half hiding besides her father, some adults were giving last minute advice to their kids…

It almost felt like a festival, but it was not. Soon, a man wearing the classic attire of a ninja, with a dark pants and shirt and a green sleeveless jacket tried to get some order in the assembly of kids, and slowly the attention shifted to him.

“Good morning, my name is Iruka and I’m one of the teachers at the academy. Please regroup in the schoolyard. I’m going to call your names, and you will follow your sensei to your classroom for your first lesson. Are you ready?”

Momiji looked at her grandmother and smiled shyly before hurrying to the middle of the courtyard where the other children were gathering. Soon after everyone had said goodbye to their parents, Iruka-sensei started calling name after name. She tried to remember them, but it was all too overwhelming and when her name was finally called, she would have been unable to say who had been before or after her.

Once all the names for her class were called their teacher brought them to what would be their classroom until their graduation as genin.

“As of today, you are officially starting your formation to become ninja. As such, we expect nothing but the best of your behavior. For the coming year, you will learn the rules that every ninja must follow, as well as general knowledge about geography, mathematics, and science. We will work on your reading and writing, and we will start training your mind and body for the next years to come. You will stay in the same class until graduation so I would advise you to get well together, because ultimately you will be partnered with two other students to form a genin team. Now, the shinobi rules are... “

They spent the rest of the morning learning by heart the rules until they were able to recite them on command. After a few hours of work, the teacher let them have their lunch break in the classroom, and as he closed the door behind him the class erupted in chatter. Many kids took their lunch box out of their bags and started to talk excitedly about their morning. Momiji looked at her table neighbor only to see him pouting. He was blond and had strange whiskers on his chin. He seemed envious of the others and she thought that perhaps he had forgotten his lunch. She took the bento her grandmother had carefully packed for her and slid it between the two of them.

“Did you forget your lunch? We can share mine if you want.”

“Really?” The blond seemed dumbfounded and also a bit suspicious.

Momiji noded with a small smile and opened her bento.

“I’m sorry, I really love tofu so there won’t be any meat, but it’s better than no lunch at all right?”

“Yeah, thanks a lot! Erm…”

“My name is Akiiro Momiji. Nice to meet you.”

“Uzumaki Naruto ! I like ramen !”

Naruto happened to be a boisterous boy with a huge appetite, but Momiji couldn’t find it in her to get mad at him even if he ended up eating most of the lunch box. She merely shook her head when the boy from behind them called Kiba started a screaming fight with him. She wasn’t used to so much noise, but somehow she liked the liveliness of it all.

(At least when they weren’t shouting in her ear, which sadly happened quite a lot and there was nothing she could do but use her chopstick to put a tofu piece in the mouth of the screamer. It was one piece of tofu she couldn’t eat, and it broke her heart. Strangely when the boy that almost choked on tofu looked at her and saw her heartbroken expression, it stopped the shouting, for a little while at least.)

“Those guys are so noisy!” A blond girl complained. “Do you want to join us until they stop shouting? I’m Ino by the way !”

She had light blond hair, bright blue eyes and Momiji caught herself in awe at how cute and nice she was. Seeing as her lunch box was empty she closed it and nodded.

“Thank you. I’m Momiji.”

She introduced herself as Ino brought her to a table where two boys were sitting, one was chubby, he had light brown hair and was eating potato chips, and the other had black hair tied above his hair like a palm tree. He was half lying on the table looking like he was trying to sleep.

“Those are Choji and Shikamaru, don’t mind Shikamaru. He is very lazy and sleeps all the time.”

“Who is sleeping?” The boy with palm hair replied. “With those guys’ ruckus there is no way I can nap. This is so bothersome.”

Those were some big words for a seven years old, and Momiji wondered if he was really smart. Choji offered her some chips and she hesitated.

“Are you sure? You don’t have to force yourself, you seem to really like them.”

Choji lit up a bit at that and smiled but did not retreat his arm offering the package.

“It’s fine : You’re right I really like them, but I don’t mind sharing. You must be hungry right? I saw you share your lunch with that blond kid.”

As if to answer his enquiry, her stomach growled loudly and she felt her face turn red while clasping her hands on her traitorous tummy. Ino laughed a little, and even the sleepyhead smiled.

“Then thank you…” she muttered as she took a fist of chips.

She had never eaten those kinds of snacks before, and her surprise showed on her face.

“It’s really crunchy !”

“Right?!”

“She can’t make a meal out of potato chips Choji!” Ino interjected. “Actually, my mom put an onigiri in my bento, but I don’t really like Umeboshi. Do you want it?”

And that’s how Momiji ended up making friends with the atypic trio. She also learnt that their families were very close and that they basically grew up together.

“Though I really hope I’ll make other friends than these two!” Ino claimed. “Shikamaru is too lazy, and Choji only cares about food, it’s no environment for a flower like myself!”

Inwardly, Momiji thought that Choji and Shikamaru seemed nice enough and that it was already great to be friends with them, but Ino seemed really determined to make new friends with her own social skills and not just because of their families.

“We can be friends if you want to.” Momiji found herself saying.

She meant it, Ino had been kind enough to share food with her, and had seen some of her discomfort earlier and came to her rescue. She didn’t mind reaching out to her.

“Really?! Thanks, I’d be happy to call you my friend, Momiji-chan! Let's eat lunch together tomorrow!”

All in all, Momiji thought as their teacher came back and they all sat back at their places, her first attempt at socialization had been good.
That’s what she told her grandma when she came to pick her at the end of school day.

“I made my first friends today. Though, I’m not sure if Choji and Shikamaru want to be my friend, I didn’t get to ask…”

“You can ask them tomorrow, sweet bean. We can even add some sweets to your bento to share with them.”

“Dorayaki???” Momiji beamed hopeful.

“Sure, but don’t make a habit out of it.” Kaede scolded her lightly.

Momiji was distracted as she spotted her table neighbor Naruto from the corner of her eyes. He was walking home alone.

“One of my classmates didn’t have any lunchbox today. So I shared mine with him. Do you think we could make some onigiri in case he doesn’t have anything tomorrow?”

“It is not your responsibility to get him lunch, Momiji.” Her grandmother frowned. “If he forgets his own lunch then he should deal with the consequences.”

“But-”

“That means no, Momiji, don’t argue.”

Her shoulder fell and she looked down in defeat. She didn’t understand why it was okay to give more food to those who already had some, but it wasn’t to give some to someone who didn’t have any. It made no sense, but she couldn’t go against her grandmother’s decision.
The next day Naruto came with a store bought lunchbox, and Momiji went to eat with Ino at her table. They talked about what they liked and didn’t like, and Momiji told them how much she enjoyed sitting on the garden deck to watch the trees and the sunset.

“If you like watching sunset, you should try to do some cloud watching.” Shikamaru commented.

“Shikamaru is always cloud watching from the top of the hill of his clan’s compound.” Choji explained.

“Why would she waste her time watching the sky!” Ino strongly objected. “We should watch flowers instead ! My mom owns a flower shop, she’ll teach us the flower language !”

“Those dorayaki are good!” Choji complimented without a care about interrupting Ino and he munched happily on the sweets.

Ino squinted her eyes at him in annoyance but chose to let it go and took a bit of her dorayaki.

“Oh, you’re right ! They are good!”

“Thanks! I helped make the anko for those !”

“That’s amazing, I had no idea you cooked!”

Momiji blushed under the praise and remembered what she had meant to ask them. Now, despite the words coming easily the day before, she found herself flustered. What if they rejected her? Objectively she knew it was unlikely, but still. She started to fidget her hands together, wringing her fingers as she struggled to find her voice.

“Um! I was wondering… if you, maybe ! if we could be friends too?” She stumbled on her words, staring at her feet and hiding behind her locks.

When she finally risked to look at them, she found the trio’s eyes on her. Choji and Ino looked confused, and her heart clenched in her chest, taking it for a no. But then, Shikamaru sighed and lazily replied :

“Idiot, you don’t have to ask, we’re already friends.”

“Don’t call her an idiot, you idiot!” Ino scolded him.

“We shared food together, that’s friendship.” Choji stated obviously.

Momiji felt a gentle heat radiate from her chest to her whole body as her face broke into a smile. She brought her fist in front of her and cheered happily :

“Yeah! We are!”

Chapter Text

Ino invited her over that weekend, along with Sakura, a girl from their class who had bright pink hair and emerald eyes. They had met her in their kunoichi class, a lesson where all the girls were taught about flower arrangement and meaning, when Ino had rescued her from being bullied. She was a bit shy and lacked self confidence, but if you worked really hard to get her to open up to you her smile was like a spring breeze. To say that Momiji was excited to spend a few hours out of school with her two girl friends was an understatement. She was literally bouncing on her feet.

“Now, sweet bean I know you are excited but you need to calm down a little. Time won’t flow faster just because you are moving like a squirrel on caffeine.”

“Sorry grandma…”

When the time finally came to go to the Yamanaka compound to meet Ino, Momiji barreled through the main entrance, a smile too huge for her face spreading on her lips, and arms full of freshly baked dorayaki.

“My my, aren’t you just adorable?” A brown headed woman cooed.

“See mum ! I told you so ! Momiji-chan is really cute right?!” Ino chriped excitedly next to her mother.

“Hello Ino ! Hello Mrs Yamanaka !”

“Are you ready to have fun today Momiji-chan?”

“Yes!”

“Thank you for having her today, Yamanaka-san.” Her grandmother politely bowed.

“Not at all, Akiiro-san, it’s my pleasure. Thank you for trusting us with your granddaughter.”

Once the niceties were done, Kaede bid goodbye to her child with some last warning to behave herself and left. Soon after Sakura was dropped off by her mother and they were able to get to the main event. Ino’s mother led them to one of their greenhouses to teach them more about flowers. The Yamanaka family was known for their flora knowledge, they were growing all kind of plants from all over the world, while the Nara clan worked with them to create remedies and poisons. It was no surprise that Ino was so knowledgeable about the flower language and it was nice of her mother to take the time to educate other kids like that.

(It was also very pragmatic to have children play while still learning things that would be very useful for them in their future career as ninja, but Momiji wouldn’t realise that for a while.)

After learning many names and meanings, Ino’s mother offered them to drink some tea in the greenhouse and to take some time to think about a flower arrangement. They drank tea and ate dorayaki in the beautiful and quiet atmosphere that can only come with being surrounded by so many flowers and Ino made most of the conversation, trying to help them coming up with idea.

For some reason, Momiji was immediately hooked by the orange flowers,especially the Marigold, but also the Cosmos and the Zinnias. Though her favorite was definitely the colorful flower bed of poppies. Red, yellow, white, with their black center they looked so soft and elegant, almost like velvet. It said a lot about her, she supposed, that she was so drawn to the color of autumn.

“I’m not surprised !” Ino smiled. “Orange is a very cheerful and warm color, it fits your personality well !”

“What about you Sakura?” Momiji asked curiously. “What are you favorite?”

“I like the peonies… and the Cosmos are really pretty…” She blushed and dropped her gaze to her tea cup from the attention.

“You’re right ! The peonies remind me of birds just when they open their wings, right Ino ?”

“Eh…! That’s true ! I never saw them like that, that’s funny ! I really like Cosmos too!”

“Me too… Oh ! I have an idea, we could make Cosmos our signature!” Momiji exclaimed excitedly. “I would sign with orange cosmos, Sakura can sign with pink cosmos, and Ino with white ones !”

“I like it !” Ino cheered.

“Me too…” Sakura smiled, still shyly but a bit less.

(After that day, most of their gifts to each other consisted of flowers, whether it was new arrangements or embroidery of specific flowers, it both helped them hone their kunoichi lessons and share something in common, with a secret meaning just for the three of them. They started to work on some secret code using only flowers and colors, and it was fun. To add some difficulties while they grew up, they would also try to sneak their gift in the others room without being noticed.)

(It was again a very pragmatic game, because in the end it helped each of them to be more conscious of security matters and taught them to be on guard even when they were supposed to be safe. It also trained their sneaking ability since all three of them but Sakura had ninja family. Obviously their parents/grandparents always could tell when there was someone sneaking in their daughter’s room, but they only did something if they thought they were too sloopy.)

Ino brought them to a small hill soon after they left the greenhouse to watch the sunset. She knew Momiji loved watching it very much and wanted her to see a different one from her home, where there were walls limiting her vision. The blonde girl wanted to show her a perfect horizon and she knew just the hill for that. The adults let them run on their own since it was the family compound, and their closest neighbors were the Nara. Neither Momiji nor Sakura had ever had that kind of freedom before, so they were both surprised and excited to follow their friend.

As they neared the top of the hill, Ino scowled a bit as she spotted a palm headed boy lying in the grass without a care in the world. Of course he would be there, that boy was always hanging out here to nap peacefully without his mum to pester him to be more productive with his day. Poor Yoshina-san, dealing with a lazy son, and a lazy husband. She turned to tell her friend not to mind him, but it was lost on Momiji who was dumbstruck by the sight before her.

The horizon was on fire. It reflected in her eyes, widened in awe, and in that instant Sakura thought that the girl looked like a fire spirit, surreal. A that moment, Momiji realised that it was her first seeing so far, with no wall to end her vision. It was amazing, and humbling, and freeing. She felt like the world was suddenly opening for her, inviting her to take a journey with him. The world was much bigger that she had fathomed, and she wanted to see more of it…

(Maybe it was childish of her, but she wanted to travel and see as many different sunset as this world had to offer, and meet new people, and watch the sunset with them.)

(It was in a way childish, because she was going to be a ninja, and ninja didn’t have the leisure to travel for their own purpose. that, and the world was always more or less at war, and some place would never allow her to peacefully watch the sun.)

“I knew you’d like it!” Ino rejoiced.

“Too noisy” Shikamaru muttered.

“Ah! You were here Shikamaru?!”

“Ugh, it’s my spot. Why are you surprised.”

“Do you want a dorayaki?”

“Why do I have a feeling this is going to be a thing with you?” Shikamaru sighed. “Sure, I’d like one.”

“Here Sakura ! Do you want one too?”

“But we just ate some…”

“You can never eat too much dorayaki.”

“It’s almost dinner time, it will spoil your appetite !”

“Do-ra-ya-ki~”

“This is such a drag…”

Chapter Text

Somewhere during her ninth year, something completely unexpected happened. Koyo was repatriated to Konoha in emergency after a mission turned wrong. Momiji wasn’t told the details, all she knew was that one evening her grandmother left in a hurry to the hospital, leaving her to her homework after saying her mother had been hurt and needed her.

Truth be told, Momiji’s reaction wasn’t one that any good daughter should have. She didn’t cry, she wasn’t even shocked, she just watched her grandmother leave, and worried for her before going back to her cup of tea. Her only concern had been for Kaede-basan. She didn’t knew her mother, and “being hurt” was pretty vague in the first place. She spent the next hour doing her homework, and working a bit on her taijutsu before taking a shower and going to bed, persuaded that she didn’t felt anything.

(It wasn’t true, she had felt something, but unable to understand that she hadn’t realized it was there. She was worried, if only because she was kind and couldn’t feel indifference at the news that someone was hurt. But she had learnt long ago to lock all her feelings about her mother, mostly sadness, and a bit of anxiety.)

The next day and the others, she went to school on her own, and walked back alone until after a few days someone unexpected confronted her about it.

“A-Are you really o-okay to walk home on your own, Momiji?” Sakura stuttered at lunch.

(She was getting better at speaking her mind, but it was still hard for her to confront anyone that wasn’t Ino)

“It’s alright, Sakura, but thank you for your concern.”

“What does Sakura mean, you’re walking home alone?!” Ino butted in outrageously.

“I walk to school alone too.” Momiji supplied. “It’s really nothing to worry about.”

“Nonsense ! It’s not safe to be alone like that Momiji! Why isn’t your grandma coming with you?!”

Ino’s outburst brought a lot of unwanted attention and Momiji felt her face flush a bright red.

“Kaede-basan is busy… M-Mother is injured at the hospital.”

She struggled to say the word, because she remembered a time when she had reached at Koyo-san calling her that only to get her hand slapped and a hateful glare that to that day still made her cower in fear. Ino mistook her stutter for sorrow and hugged her.

“I’m sorry Momiji, I had no idea! I’ll ask my mom to walk you home before we go home ourselves okay !”

At that point Momiji just gave up on convincing her blond friend that there was no need to trouble herself. She just wanted people to stop staring and thus kept quiet. When school was over, Ino forcefully took her hand to drag her to her mother where she explained the situation, causing the other girl to feel further more embarrassed because Mrs Yamanaka was talking with Shikamaru and Choji’s mothers, and both boys were there too. Thankfully, neither said anything, Choji simply offered her to share his snacks.

After that, Shikamaru and Ino’s mother took it upon themselves to make sure there was always someone to pick her in the morning and then to walk her after school. After protesting a lot, she resigned that they wouldn’t listen and promised herself to find something to thank them for their troubles.

Plus it wasn’t just their mother, sometime in the afternoon it was Shikamaru’s father that picked them, and Momiji would observe the father and son interact with each other with a lot of curiosity. She had no dad herself, and found herself at awe at their bond. They were so alike, it was like watching an older version of her friend : Shikaku-san was laid back and very smart, and the obvious complicity of the two made her chest hurt strangely.

(She had no way to know that what she was feeling was longing. She wanted badly what these two had, she missed a father figure in her life even if she didn’t know that. She had never been one to ponder too long on what she didn’t have that the other had. There wasn’t any point in mourning something that she couldn’t have. But sometime, even a wise girl like her couldn’t keep the feelings at bay.)

She almost got used to that new routine. Even with the mixed feelings, she liked spending more time with her friends. But then, Koyo came home, more bitter and angry than ever. Because her injury had been so severe that she was told she would probably not make a full recovery, and it put a serious hindrance in her ambitions. And the place that used to be her safe place, the rock that kept her balanced, became a new kind of hell.

Kaede-basan tried her best to protect Momiji, to keep them separated, but it wasn’t enough and after spending so many years away from her mother, Momiji was deeply disturbed to find herself in constant exposure to Koyo’s hatred toward her.

(She didn’t know how to deal with that, it was one thing to come to term with the fact that her mother didn’t like her, it was another to be hated like that in her home.)

Her friends noticed her struggle, though they didn’t know the cause, only suspected that maybe she felt lonely without her grandmother. But then, there was the fact that she always seemed to wait outside of her house very early to go to school and dragged her feet to go back in the afternoon. She was starting to act skittish, like Sakura used to be, and no matter how hard Ino tried to bring her out of her shell, Momiji’s brightness seemed to slowly dull days after days.

“You know that you can talk to us, Momiji, right?” Ino kept asking, a helpless look in her eyes.

“Thank you Ino, but I’m fine really.” Was Momiji’s unchanged answer.

“She doesn’t look fine.” Choji would comment out of earshot.

“She should just spill the bean, this is so bothersome.” Shikamaru would mutter in fake nonchalance, but unable to hide the worry in his dark eyes.

Privately, he even asked his father for advice in regards to that troublesome situation, but Shikaku’s only answer was to say that she would talk when she was ready and that they shouldn’t pressure her.

After a month of this, Momiji was feeling so down she thought her mood was probably living like a mole in a hole by now. She didn’t want to burden her friends, but she could see that her terrible mood was putting them on edge, and she felt terrible for that. But there was no escape from her problem : Koyo wouldn’t be leaving anytime soon, and nothing she could do would make her hate her less. Her grandmother was torn between protecting her granddaughter and helping her daughter get better. The situation at home just kept getting more and more complicated, like a poison spreading, it was making everyone shortsighted to the point where they couldn’t do a thing.

The solution showed itself in the form of the worst thing that could have happened in Momiji’s mind. Koyo showed up at the end of the school day.

Upon seeing her, Momiji just froze on the spot, with a terrified look that had no place on a kid’s face. That day, Shikaku had been the one to pick the kids at school, and frowned deeply at the girl’s reaction. He followed the direction of her stare to find a woman that looked a lot like the kid standing on the edge of the gathering of parents. The woman looked a lot like Momiji, but with bitter lines on her forehead and around her mouth, but what really struck him was the look of pure loathing in her eyes as she glared at the nine years old. It was so intense he actually feared she would try to hurt her, and even the kids could sense it.

Now, his son wasn’t exactly an overzealous kid. He was as lazy as him and would rather not play hero, but Shikaku was actually proud to see the brat take a step to stand between the two Akiiro, putting his small body as a shield to protect his little friend from the woman’s hatred.

“Sorry m’am but I’m gonna ask you to leave. You have nothing to do here.” Shikaku called her out.

“I have every right to be here.” The woman replied. “I’m picking up my daughter from school. How is that wrong?!”

“No one in their right mind would let you walk away with that kid.” He stared hard to make his point.

“Momiji!” She barked. “Stop wasting my time and come here now.”

Momiji flinched and looked around in panic. Ino then took her right hand, while Sakura took her left with a lot less confidence.

“She’s not going anywhere with you, witch!” Ino claimed with gusto.

“Shut up brat.”

The other parents started to glare at the woman too, because she was proving to be a threat to all the children here. Shikaku sighed and resolved himself to move. Straightening from his casual slouch, he stood from all his height in front of the woman who suddenly seemed to realise the threat. She took a step back, still glaring but with less intensity. She then started to realise the staring from the other parents, with so many representative from important clan of the village.

“Koyo! What are you doing!” The arrival of Kaede seemed to be the last punch.

“Kaede-san, do you know that woman?” Mrs Yamanaka asked, frowning.

“... She is my daughter. I deeply apologize if she caused any troubles…”

It was a rare sight, to see such a disturbed look on the usually very proper and put together old lady.

“It’s not us she wronged.” Ino’s mother replied.

Kaede paled.

“Momiji !”

It was a testimony to how distraught the girl was that she actually flinched at the sound of her grandmother’s voice, tears welling up in her eyes. The old woman seemed very close to tears too, and Shikaku took the matter at hand to defuse the situation.

“Momiji-chan will be dining with us tonight.” His voice was final. “She can sleep in the guest room. Since there isn’t school tomorrow, that shouldn’t be a problem, am I wrong?”

“You-”

“I’m so sorry Nara-san. Please, take care of Momiji.” Kaeded bowed.

“Likewise.”

The parents started to collect their kid and leave with suspicious glance at the offensive woman. Sakura squeezed Momiji’s hand to show support before going to her mother, but Ino was more reluctant and stared with a lot more determination that could fit into her small body at Shikamaru.

“You take care of Momiji-chan, you understand me Shikamaru?! I’ll come tomorrow and there will be hell to pay if you-”

“I got it, I got it.” Shikamaru replied, pretending annoyance when he actually shared the sentiment.

Ino raised her hand that still held Momiji’s and without protesting the boy took it before walking to his father, but only after Kaede had ushered Koyo out of sight. Shikaku sighed deeply and seemed to deflate and rubbed the back of his head.

“Damn woman, being overdramatic !” He grumbled.

“I’m sorry !” Momiji sobed.

She tried to stop the tears from falling with her free hand, but to no avail. The full fledged ninja looked quite at loss of what to do at the sight of the trembling terrified girl, and shared a look of panic with his son who shrugged with wide eyes, as lost as he was. Eventually, using his incredible intelligence, Shikaku noticed she was still grasping at his son's hand and decided that perhaps reassuring contact was the right strategy to adopt. He patted awkwardly the girl's head, distractingly noticing how soft and fluffy her hair was while conjuring the memories of how his best friend Inoichi handled his little girl in situation like this.

“There, there, it’s alright now. You don’t have to apologize for some wicked woman’s deed.”

It didn’t really work. But it had been at least ten minutes and they were still standing in front of the academy, so Shikaku decided it was time to move. Asking a sobbing mess to walk wasn’t exactly a good idea, so he did the logical thing and took her in his arm with the firm objective to give her to his wife and go hide somewhere. As for Shikamaru he used his genius brain to decide that a distraction might work and started to talk about his day like nothing was wrong, not complaining about the weird position of his arm since his hand was still in the girl’s tight grip.

(Momiji would later confess that it had been the first time someone had taken her in their arm like that, and made her feel safe. She would also quietly admit that holding his hand had been really comforting and she was sorry if it had hurt his shoulder. Shikamaru would only shrug and ignore the soreness in his shoulder from the awkward position, claiming it hadn’t been as bothersome as, say, Ino’s screeching.)

By the time they arrived at the Nara’s compound, Momiji was passed out from exhaustion, and despite having relented her hold of Shikamaru’s hand, he pretended not to have noticed and only let go once his mother, Yoshino, opened the door and ushered them inside.

“Poor girl, Ran told me what happened. How did such an awful woman managed to give birth to an adorable girl like Momiji is beyond me… I prepared the guest room.”

“Actually mom.” Shikamaru spoke up. “Just put a pillow and a blanket on the veranda for now, she likes sunset.”

Yoshino gave her son a warm, proud look, understanding the unsaid “It will maybe cheer her up” and hurried to find the mentioned piece of clothing.

“I hope you realise you’ve got an awesome mom, son.” Shikaku said.

“Yeah. Still bothersome though.”

“Of course.”

(After that day, Momiji’s undying admiration for Shikaku was borned, and she never stopped looking at him with a starstruck look on her face, much to Shikamaru’s annoyment. Even if he really didn’t understand why he was so annoyed. Yoshino just laughed at his grumpy expression every time that happened, with a knowing look on her face)

The next morning, Shikaku went to the Akiiro residence. No matter how much Yoshino insisted on keeping the little girl forever (“Have you seen her, stupid husband? She is so cute and fluffy ! Let's keep her!”) something had to be done about the daughter of Kaede.

(He refused to call the deranged looking woman a mother of any kind, because the kid was still very distraught and he just couldn’t help but wonder how long had the girl been exposed to so much loathing that it managed to completely destroy her bright smile)

As he walked to his destination he recalled the discussion he had heard between the two kids as they watched the sunset with a cup of tea. (And really, that was a testimony to how dedicated Shikamaru could be to his friend that the boy actually made tea without being threatened or even prompted by his mother)

“Koyo-san never liked me, but it got worse since she was hurt…”

“That was last month right?” Shikamaru had prompted.

(He probably knew the conversation was being listened and was giving all the clues he had, the smart brat.)

“Hm. The hospital said she wouldn’t recover completely, and it made her very angry. It’s… very important for her to be the best kunoichi possible. It was bad enough that she had to stay at the village several months before I was borned, that’s why she doesn’t like me. I wasted her time.”

“You’re not a waste of time though.”

“I wish there was a way for her to be happy… I don’t know if I’m the cause of her bitterness or not, but it’s painful to see her like that…”

(And of course the kid was more worried about the hateful woman than for herself, no matter how scared and distressed she made her feel. Shikaku wondered how much of her reaction was due to the hatred itself and not at the fact that it was directed at her specifically.)

“I’m here to talk to Kaede-san.” Shikaku introduced himself at the door.

“Ah, of course Shikaku-san, we were expecting you. Please follow after me.”

The inside was as traditional as you can get, full of long hallway with shogi doors, everything half opened to the garden that seemed to take the most important place. the vegetation was thick, with many maple trees, red bushes creating a composition that screamed “automn”. More importantly, the atmosphere was very quiet, most of the clan members seemed to enjoy the silence and despite his love of a quiet place to nap he couldn’t help but think it was a sad place to grow up. He himself would find it a bit lonely if there wasn’t the annoyed voice of his wife scolding him for his laziness.

“Thank you for coming, Shikaku-san.”

The Akiiro matriarch seemed to have found her composure again as she spoke while offering him a cup of tea. Next to her, her daughter was disturbingly silent but he wasn’t going to complain.

“Let’s skip the niceties, Kaede-san, I’d rather spent my day off at home. I am only here because it is quite clear that you daughter cannot be allowed anywhere near Momiji-chan, for both their sake.”

He could see that Akiiro Koyo was clenching her jaws painfully, a proof that she was trying very hard to keep her anger in control. He had no doubt that she had realised since yesterday just who he was, that is to say the head of the Nara clan as well as the Jounin commander. He could ruin her career effortlessly, and was way higher than her in the hierarchy. She was, after all, only a chuunin. It was honestly a bit concerning to think that such a volatile woman had the power to command a small squad and he would have to study her case more thoroughly when he got to the Hokage Tower.

“The problem is quite simple, one of them will have to find somewhere else to live.”

“Shikaku-san, you cannot ask me to throw my daughter out-”

“I’m not asking anything, I’m stating a truth. I’ll take charge of your granddaughter for as long as that woman stay under your roof, since she can’t be trusted to keep her temper in check. But I believe we can come to a compromise that will satisfy everyone.”

And that is how he got Koyo to be transferred at one of the border camps with a long term mission that was sufficiently difficult and recognized to be accepted by her as a career opportunity.

That didn’t stop him for letting them know that Momiji would stay the weekend, if only to satisfy his bothersome wife.

Chapter Text

Momiji was ten the day she realised what being a ninja truly meant. She had grown up listening to stories about the heroics of Hokage, the legendary Sannin and tales about great battles. Deep down, she probably already knew but it wasn’t until that fateful day that she understood. 

It didn’t occur by some dramatic events in her life. Her day had been quite normal, with breakfast, lessons, lunch with her friends…

(It was getting extra hard to convince Ino to go eat with Shikamaru and Choji, she would rather eat with her and Sakura while the boys would hang out with other boys. In truth, Momiji didn’t really understood that separation of gender, it didn’t really matter to her whether she was a boy or a girl, she just wanted to spend time with her friends… it was making her a bit sad but she kept quiet. Besides she still visited Shikamaru’s house once a week to keep her promise with Yoshino and get her fix of Shikaku exposure.)

They had an afternoon lesson about the basic strategy of ambush, when a thought occurred to her. If she followed those instructions in real conditions, someone would die. She went through all her old lessons, and started to see how all of those lecture were teaching her how to efficiently hurt, maim, or kill enemy ninjas, and her mind went blank, her head spinning from the sudden realisation. 

She was ten, and she was being taught how to kill for her village. 

And then, there were the kunoichi lessons, where she was taught how to infiltrate and seduce men in order to accomplish her mission, which involved more killing. She probably shouldn’t have been so surprised, but a part of her was feeling betrayed. Like everyone had been in on a very important secret but her, making her feel like a fool. None had actually spoken the words “kill” or “murder” when explaining things to them ! 

She wanted to make the world peaceful, so that many people could watch the sunset in peace and serenity ! Not to kill anyone ! But was it even possible, to protect without hurting ?

The very foundation of her life were shattering but she could do nothing more than doubt herself even more as her brain tried in vain to find something, anything to keep it all together. Maybe she had missed an essential piece that would prove her that she was wrong and her dream wasn’t a pipe one ! 

She felt like she was grasping at water, the liquid escaping her closed fist, leaving her emptyhanded. 

(Some would say that ten years old was too young for one’s first existential crisis, and truly, all her friends and classmates didn’t seemed like they had that kind of problem, but Momiji had always been more mature. Her grandma called her an old soul, laughing softly that it was her fault for making her hang out with old people for too long. What kind of five years old had as a hobby drinking tea on the veranda watching sunset after all? Still Momiji was having an existential crisis, in the middle of a lecture, and none noticed the slight shiver of her small frame, and the distress in her amber eyes.) 

She was so lost in her though that she totally missed when Naruto raised his hand in the middle of the lecture and interrupted their teacher to ask a stupid question, causing the whole class to burst into laughter. Someone did notice her lack of reaction though, and stored the information in the back of their mind. 

(Because last time she had started to withdraw herself things had escalated a bit to much for their taste and there would be no second mistake of that kind.)

She wanted to ask someone for advice, but couldn’t ask her friends. She couldn’t risk provoking the same kind of existential crisis in them after all. Not so long ago, she would have gone to her grandmother but ever since the Koyo incident, she found it hard to rely on her. 

(Somehow, Kaede-basan didn’t make her feel safe anymore, and didn’t seem as reliable and all knowing as before. She still loved her dearly but it was less blinded by her adoration. Some would say she was simply growing up, and that was okay.) 

That meant there was only one adult she could ask and trust to answer her truthfully without sugarcoating the fact. That person happened to be her favorite adult, and a respected ninja of the village, so she knew he would have the answers she was looking for. She made her resolve. 

After going home that afternoon, Momiji took a box of oolong tea, and took off to the Nara compound. 

(Oolong tea was her least favorite tea, it was too smokey and bitter for her taste, but it was Shikaku’s favorite. And she felt like the conversation that was about to happen wouldn’t befit a sweet delicate tea anyway. She was growing up, and it was time to accept that there was as much bitterness as there was sweetness in this world)

The jonin commander seemed bemused to find her on his doorstep, a serious look on her childish face, and invited her to play a game of shogi. She had never played, so he had to explain the rule first, and then she was too focused to remember why she had come, until one of her piece was taken. 

“Ne, Shikaku-san… does a ninja have to kill?” 

His hand froze for a second as he moved his next piece, and he took his time to answer, his face betraying nothing. 

“Yes.” 

Momiji seemed to deflate but said nothing for a while as the game continued.

“I don’t know why I never thought of that. It’s pretty obvious afterall.” She whispered self-depreciatingly. 

“Not necessarily.” He interjected. “So far, you’ve been taught in a very demure way, it all takes the form of games and lessons. I believe the subject of death isn’t broached before the last year of academia. So don’t feel too bad about it.” 

It wasn’t really comforting, but she could understand many thing from their discussion so far. She would have to come to term with the deathly part of the job sooner rather than later, and it wasn’t something that she could avoid. The idea of killing someone was difficult to stomach, but she knew deep down that being a ninja wasn’t just games and fun. 

“Let me ask you a question Momiji-chan. What does it mean to you, to be a ninja?” 

She pondered the question for a few minutes instead of blurting what had been ingrained in them from the first, before answering :

“It means protecting the village.”

“Then, why does the village need protection?” 

That was a good question. She knew her history lesson of course, knew about the Shinobi Wars, and the conflicts with the other villages. She knew that, but the reason behind was eluding her. 

“Because people fights. But I’m not sure I understand why.” 

“Ah, I’m not sure anyone really knows that. Greed, mainly. Fear, Hatred. It’s easier for people to go to war than to make peace. Right now, the world is at relative peace though.” 

“Is it really possible to fight for peace then? Isn’t it contradictory?” 

“That’s a very good question. One I have no answer for. You’ll have to come to your own conclusion.” 

She was deep in thought for the rest of their game (obviously Shikaku had hold back, or the game wouldn't have lasted half of that time) and then Yoshino insisted that she stayed for diner. By that time, Shikamaru had gotten used to find the girl in his living room when he came home after hanging out with Choji. 

He had no problem with Momiji whatsoever, she was his friend and easier to deal with than Ino, but then again in some way she was harder to understand. But the way she looked at his dad like he was the next best thing after dorayaki was making his eyebrow twitch. He couldn’t say he was jealous of the attention given to her by his parents, he could still vividly remember her own mother and he had no problem sharing. Especially since she deflected his mother’s attention from him, allowing him to perfect his lazy lifestyle. This was quite mysterious, maybe he was just annoyed at the idea that the last sensible female he knew that didn’t worship Uchiha Sasuke was going to fangirl over his dad. 

He shuddered at the thought. Ino and Sakura and most of the girls were becoming crazy about the so-called genius. Even though he was a scornful brat, with an attitude and surrounded by his bad boy aura. And they were so loud about it ! Sadly, he had close to no hope that this would get better with time. 

Ah, this was such a drag. 

Chapter Text

When Momiji turned eleven, her formal training to her clan style got a lot more important, to the point where her free time significantly diminished. Her grandmother took charge of her training now that she had covered all the important bases with the Academy lessons. She was a retired kunoichi and had a lot of insight on the skills required to survive the field, and expected nothing short of the best from her. The discipline asked from her was a lot rougher than what she was used from her grandmother, but she wasn’t complaining. They were working on her chakra : mainly her control and her reserves, which meant she spent several hours each day giving everything she had until she was totally drained. 

“Chakra reserves are like a muscle. You need to work it out before it can grow stronger. Just like when you’ve been holding your breath for a long time, when you take a breath in a lot more air gets into your lungs.” Kaede-bachan had explained. “As for your control, you need to be able to have the most perfect control without even thinking about it, it needs to become as natural as breathing. And that can only be acquired by training, training, and training. I won’t teach you any of our clan’s jutsu before you earn an impeccable control.” 

She had a lot of exercises to do, but her favorite by far was meditation : she had to stay still, controle her breathing, and open herself to the perception of the chakra present in all things. It was both peaceful and beautiful, and after hours of perfecting her perception, she was now able to see a pattern in the energy flow of living things, such as tree and water. She was currently focusing on wind, because it was her clan’s element and the hardest to grasp so far. 

The water flowed at a certain rhythm, and it was possible to touch it, even if you couldn’t catch it with your hand you could trap it in a bowl. As for the trees, they were alive and it was easy to catch the way chakra moved inside, connecting the roots to the leaves and redistributing energy in a balanced manner. But wind ? Wind was nothing but pure movement. You could feel it but not see it nor touch it. It carried smells and dust and dirt, and you could create a small gust of air with a sharp enough gesture. It was everywhere, and you couldn’t live without it. Wind was free, and hard to understand. 

She had other exercises than just meditation of course, but meditation was the one she could do anywhere, especially in class. Other than that she had balance exercise, where she had to stand on one foot on a log that was roughly a ten centimeter radius and one meter high, stamina exercise asking her to run around the village at nightfall, as well as a serie of Tai Chi sets in order to prepare her body for the graceful moves of the Akiiro Fighting Style.

“Usually, your jounin sensei is the one to teach his genin how to walk on trees and then on water, but I find that to be too late. It used to be on the program of the academy, and I have no idea who thought it would be a good idea to remove it.” 

Kaede-bachan had a  strong opinion on a lot of things, but especially when it came to the formation of her granddaughter since any lacking from the academy could result in harm for her or worse. She still remembered what had happened to her daughter, and took that fear to turn her into a very strict mentor to make sure Momiji had enough training to survive anything thrown at her. 

Momiji regretted that she couldn’t share her training with Sakura, who was an ace on everything about chakra control : she would have loved to ask her for some pointer, but lately her and Ino had become insufferable. Apparently, eleven was the right age to start focusing on their crushes, and they took their common affection for the Uchiha boy as the stepping stone of their newfound rivalry. They were arguing on any and everything and Momiji’s legendary patience was running so thin that most of the time she just left the two girl at each other’s throat and went to practice her meditation or hang out with the boys. 

Which most of the time ended up with her meditating anyway since Choji, Shikamaru and their trouble buddy Naruto spent most of their time at school sleeping in the back of the classroom. They only came back to life after school running around and causing mischief, but Momiji had training so she only caught a glimpse of them during her jog around the village and that was that. 

Despite how busy she was, Momiji felt quite lonely, but couldn’t do anything about it because she was too tired by her training to go out after it to play with her friends. The only solution would have been to get her friend to train with her, at least for the jogging part, but none of them were interested. Ino and Sakura didn’t want to get sweaty, Shikamaru was too lazy, and Choji hated running. It was frustrating, to feel like she was the only one taking the ninja life seriously, it made her worry that her friends were going to get seriously hurt sooner rather than later once they became genin.

First, it had been her existential crisis about the life of a shinobi, the expectation of bringing death to the village’s enemies. Now it seemed like she was also the only one worried about the large possibility of dying in a mission for the village. It was a school to become a ninja but everyone was so desensitized it made her feel like tearing her hair out ! Maybe it was okay for Ino Shikamaru and Choji who all had their clan’s teaching and technique, but Sakura wasn’t from a big clan, all she had to improve was the general teaching of the academy and that wasn’t enough . And she didn’t knew how to make them understand . 

Which made her curse the generality of the academy’s curriculum, and prompted her to seek more information about the different kind of specialisation a shinobi could follow. First, there was the type of a ninja, it was either taijutsu, ninjutsu or genjutsu. If she had to guess, she would say that the Hyuuga were taijutsu type for exemple, while the Uchiha fundamentally were genjutsu type even if with their Sharingan they also had a strong forte in ninjutsu and taijutsu. The Akiiro were focused on Taijutsu too, because they used their own body as a strong medium and then used their chakra to enhance it. It depended heavily on their chakra type too, which was either water, wind, earth, fire or thunder : as soon as you learnt the basics of charkra manipulation, you took the test to see what was your affinity and then learnt a variation of the clan taijutsu that fit said affinity. 

(Momiji had a wind affinity, but her mother had a fire affinity, and her grandmother was fire too but knew each of the styles as was her responsibility as the head of clan. She had to be able to teach all the children of the clan after all. )

Other than that, a ninja could become a medic-nin focused on healing, a poison master, a infiltration specialist, a frontline fighter, an interrogator, a strategist, a hunter, or become part of the intelligence, which was deeply linked with the interrogator as they were gathering data about enemies moves. The Torture and Intelligence - T&I for short - of Konoha was led by Morino Ibiki and supported by the Yamanaka clan since their clan’s jutsu was perfect for intel gathering straight from the enemies mind. Basically, every mission given by the village needed a strong intel behind it, especially for the high leveled mission. It was from their data and report that the Hokage created the missions and ranked them. It wasn’t a forgiving job, and came with a high responsibility. 

Momiji found that even if those specialisations made the most of a ninja, you couldn’t specialise right from the start, you needed strong basis in everything before you could pretend a specialisation. Which made sense, really. 

Anyhow, she started slipping pamphlets on those subjects in her friends notebooks, subtly trying to make them aware of the ocean of possibilities, especially for Sakura who was a great scholar but would probably fall hard when confronted at the reality of a ninja’s life. It was the best she could do to protect them, because they were her friends and she couldn’t make decisions for them, only inform and warn them. 

(Her investigation didn’t escape the T&I who were priding themselves to be aware of everything in the village. And truly, an academy student going out of her way to learn about the reality of the shinobi world was unusual enough that her curiosity earned her a positive appraisal from the office and a calculative interest from its head for her potential. That would partly explain her genin assignment, which was unprecedented.)

It was one evening, as she walked back from her jog by the merchant district, that she met a fellow academy classmate to whom she had never spoken. 

(She wasn’t even sure why she had caught her eyes, maybe her newfound solitude had made her more open to the rest of her classmates in the hope that she wasn’t the only one serious about being a ninja?) 

The girl had the spikiest hair she had ever seen, of a bright red shade that screamed for attention, going into every direction but leaving her face totally clear but for two or three locks of baby short hair. Here eyes were a cerulean blue and looked sharp, with an edge that made her seem much more adult that anyone from her class. She wore a black short , knee high ninja shoes, and a white short sleeveless kimono with the red spiral of friendship on the back. And she was walking while reading a thick book on Fuinjutsu, avoiding obstacles without looking up even once. 

“That’s an interesting use of multitasking, how do you do that?” Momiji asked curiously. 

(She had an idea that it was maybe chakra sensing, but then if she could do that and actually understand what she read, then Momiji was impressed.) 

The girl didn’t stop walking, which was fine because Momiji didn’t either, but raised her head to look at her. For a few seconds, she felt like she was being analysed, then a gleam of interest was lit in her eyes. 

“I’ve been training for years.” She finally answered. “Admittedly, there were a lot of failures at first but it’s worth it. Were you training? You are covered in sweat and look quite winded.”

“Yeah, I run laps around the village every evening. I finally managed to get five done in two hours, but it’s exhausting.” 

The red head looked surprised, and Momiji could easily see the ‘Why’ she was asking with her eyes. 

“I’m working on my stamina and chakra reserve.” 

The girl made a sound to acknowledge her answer but added nothing else. They walked in silence, which wasn’t exactly uncomfortable, both were deep in their thoughts. Momiji was busy remembering what she knew about her classmate. Her name was… Uzumaki Ryuuko, from the extinct Uzumaki clan, which put the spiral on her back into perspective since it was her clan’s symbol. It also explained the red hair, and the book on Fuinjutsu. She didn’t know much more than that, but the girl was a loner, a non fangirl, and a serious student. 

That’s when she considered something. She was feeling so peeved at her friends lately, and was tired of feeling like the weird one. Maybe. Maybe she could start spending more time with people that had the same focus as her ? 

“What does it mean to be a ninja to you?” She inquired lightly, trying to hide her intensity. 

Ryuuko stopped walking and shot her a calculating glare.

“It means fighting to make sure what happened to Uzushiogakure doesn’t happen to Konoha.” 

“Protect, whatever the cost.” 

That night, they came to an understanding. They didn’t suddenly become best friends, but they started to eat lunch together, and talk about their lessons and the ninja life in general. And suddenly, she felt a little less misunderstood. 

Chapter Text

Ryuuko was an orphan. It wasn’t especially rare, she was born a few month before the Kyuubi attack on the village, and many people had lost their family that day. That wasn’t why she was an orphan though. It had started long before she was even born, when the Hidden Villages ganged together to destroy the Hidden Village of the Whirlpool, killing everyone on sight and obliging the few survivors to scatter around the world and hide. Her parents had barely been promoted genin and assigned to the same team when that happened, and had escaped together. They had lived a life of witch hunt, never stopping long at one place for many years, becoming closer over each trial they faced together, until roughly a decade later her mother found out that she was pregnant. 

It hadn’t been a happy news, they had both cried at the idea of bringing a life to the world when they didn’t have anything to give her. It prompted them to seek some protection from their village old allies, despite their resentment that they had done nothing to protect them. But for their child they had been ready to make the sacrifice. 

Her father had been killed three days before they had reached Konoha, covering for his lover to let her get to safety and paying that with his life. Her mother had been heartbroken and angry, but despite her obvious grudge against the village, the Fourth Hokage had welcomed her, offered her a home and even introduced her to his wife, one of the last Uzumaki, and the host of the nine tailed demon. 

Her mother and Kushina had bounded over their pregnancy and the heritage of the lost village, the wife of the Hokage had in her possession a whole library of history and technique of the village that she was more than happy to share. Life at the HIdden Village of the Leaf had been good, but it wasn’t to last. After Ryuuko was borned, the seal containing the Kyuubi inside of Kushina was weakened and broken while she was giving birth, and both the Uzumaki and the Fourth Hokage had given their life to seal it back in their own son. 

Ryuuko had grew up with a mother bitter and depressed, who went back to the life of a ninja after she turned two years old, leaving her alone for days with the sole company of the books that Kushina had left her in her testament. When she was four, her mother didn’t come back, and Ryuuko was labeled as an orphan. It didn’t change much, she still had the house, and the books, and was given an allotted amount of money each month to buy food and others necessity. She took over the part of the last Uzumaki, even if there was another boy carrying that name, he didn’t have red hair, and as such it was easy to forget about his legacy. 

She enrolled at the academy. It was the only life she knew, having grown up surrounded by scrolls about fuinjutsu, Ninjutsu, and other ninja memorabilia. 

Then, after eleven years of relative numbness and empty life, an autumnal breeze softly started to make things move. 

It wasn’t anything mindblowing, it started with small things that she barely paid any mind to, like the running around the village that sounded really beneficial and was done with company for a change, or the occasional sweet Momiji treated her too after the training. When she started to eat lunch with her, she didn’t mind either, because really they ate in relative silence, sometimes commenting on the mornings lessons or what they were learning with their personal training. Then somehow, it shifted toward invitations to dinner, at her home, and showing up on her doorstep on the weekend for study sessions. Before she knew what was happening, she had a friend, and said friend managed by some sort of forbidden jutsu to bring her sass to life. 

Before, she barely talked. Now she barely talked and when she did it was with sassy come back. Iruka-sensei didn’t know if he wanted to sigh in relief or cry bitter tears. 

“Graduation is coming quick.” Momiji said one day out of the blue. 

Ryuuko merely rose an eyebrow as if to say ‘So?’ but rather than take offense, the orange head explained : 

“We should decide on our kunoichi outfit.” 

“What.” 

“Don’t look at me like that ! It’s one thing to dress to the academy for practice, but our outfit as genin needs to be a lot more thought out. Look at Sakura for example, she is noticeable enough with her pink hair, but she is also wearing red, she’s a walking target just for the sake of fashion ! We’re starting at the lowest level, I don’t want to risk being killed because my outfit wasn’t appropriate.” 

“Eh. You have a point there. Later when we’ll be more skilled we’ll probably be able to take responsibility for a fashion statement. Until then though…” 

Turned out clothes shopping wasn’t as awful as expected, especially because they spent a lot more time goofing around than actually working on serious outfits. On another hand, there were so many offending pieces of clothing in the mainstreet shops that it was either laughing or crying tears of blood. 

“No offense but if I ever catch you wearing purple again, I will murder you myself with your toothbrush.” 

“I’d love to see you wear pink again, it was an enlightening experience.” Momiji countered with an angelic smile. 

There was something about the girl that made it impossible for her to look anything but innocent. Even when it was clear with the contexte that she was being an ass, she always looked too pure and genuine to take real offense. That was a terrible weapon. One which Ryuuko was trying to become immune to but it took time and work, and frequent exposure. 

“More seriously thought, shouldn’t we go for at least two different outfit ? One to look like innocent civilian, and one for actual camouflage?” 

“Yeah, that’s probably what we should do, get as many outfits as possible to fit the different parts of the job. And one to look like regular innocent genin to fit with the rest of our generation.” 

“So, an all black and covered outfit for camouflage, a bland unnoticeable one for going under the radar in a populated area, and something to fit our personal taste?” 

“That’s a good start yeah. And we have to make sure we can fight in each of them and that they fill the requirements of our techniques.” 

“Lets get seriously to it then.” 

In the end, they both picked the same dark outfit that looked a lot like the jounin standard uniform but in full black and with long sleeve that fit their arm tightly and protection on their forearm, as well as turtle neck and with a hood to cover their flashy hair. Then they picked everyday civilian kimonos in bland colors such as beige and brown. Then each took great pleasure in choosing their personal style, with Ryuuko going with black, grey and white, and Momiji choosing a beige pant and brown top that would look incredible once she actually grow up into teenagehood. (nda: I’m too lazy to describe, so go for the pic at the end of the doc)

They had wasted a whole afternoon of training for shopping, but instead of being annoyed, Ryuuko didn’t care, in fact it was the most fun she had ever had. She had always taken their ninja training seriously, and she knew that Momiji was in the same case. 

(She remembered a half whispered admission that she was scared of death as a whole. Death of herself, of her friends, of her enemy… She feared the day she would have to kill, took every technique they were taught as a lethal weapon. She could respect that.) 

Still, they finished their day at the hot spring, enjoying the occasion to relax in the warm water until the final rush for graduation and, hopefully, the genin life. It was okay to blow of some stream like that, once in a while. Having a friend was fun. 

Chapter Text

The day finally came for graduation and the team attribution. Well, he said finally, but he wasn’t really thrilled, just glad to be rid of the academy after flying through it with the minimum of effort required. He couldn’t say that he was looking forward to the workload that came with being a ninja, but he had chosen that path so he couldn’t complain too much. He wasn’t holding his breath either about his future team, it was quite obviously going to be the well rounded Ino-Shika-Cho, and no, he wasn’t thrilled at the idea of being teamed with Ino, who despite being somewhat of a childhood friend was terribly annoying with her fangirl phase. She was also an energetic bully, trying all the time to make him do stuff and keeping him away from napping. Damn it, he needed his sleep. 

The last two years at the academy had gotten somewhat more boring than ever, what with the civil war between girls over Sasuke Uchiha. So many squealing, chirping, and fangirling, it made his head hurt. Then, there was also the fact that Momiji had started to take some distance from their bunch. First with Ino and Sakura, which were her main friends but had driven her away with all their arguing, then even from Choji and him, for some unkown reason he hadn’t been able to understand even though his dad seemed to know. Which kinda annoyed him and made him ignore the matter out of spite. Not his smartest move but then the orange head started to hang out with Uzumaki Ryuuko out of anyone and what the fuck?

(So what if he was a little hurt by her lack of interest in him after their first years of friendship. She could do whatever she wanted. And yeah, he hadn’t gone out of his way to find her but that was just who he was, she knew that, right? Right?) 

What was mildly interesting him was what would happen to the two extra in the team assignment. Genin team needed three genin, and there were missing one graduated. He supposed that two of them would get an apprenticeship instead of a team, which wasn’t a bad bargain, since they would get one to one training and a tailor made teacher. 

Eventually, Iruka-sensei arrived and asked for their attention, before he started listing up the team. Shikamaru lazily noted that he was in Team Ten with his expected teammates and yawn and Iruka concluded: 

“Momiji, Ryuuko, since there was an odd number of graduates, you will both get an apprenticeship, the jounin sensei will arrive shortly, the both of you will come with me so I can lead you to your mentor.” 

Shikamaru blinked. Momiji looked a bit torn, and there was some disappointment in her eyes, but then she raised her chin and stood up. He could understand, they were all raised with the tale and praise of having your gening team, the fact that the tie bonding you with your team would last for a lifetime. Being told you wouldn’t get that was a let down. He also noted that Ryuuko didn’t seem phased at the news. Then they both left the room, and got distracted not long after by the arrival of his team Jounin. 

Momiji was not going to pretend she wasn’t disappointed. The fact that Ryuuko was in the same situation as her didn’t help, because there was no guarantee they would do the apprenticeship with the same person. In fact it was very unlikely. It didn’t matter that she would progress a much faster pace with a mentor for herself. It… hurt. All these hours of training, it had been to be able to protect her future teammates. And now… now she felt even more isolated than before she started training with Ryuuko. She felt put aside, like she had done something wrong and wasn’t good enough for a team. 

(She wanted a team. Wanted the camaraderie, the trusting relationship, the feeling of belonging . Had she been wrong to work so hard? Had it made it look like she would be a bad teammate? Like she didn’t care for her classmate? It hurt !) 

Still, she followed, obediently, keeping her feeling for herself, trying her best not to feel betrayed . 

“Hey, it’s okay you know?” Iruka spoke after they left the building, noticing her sullen expression. “Apprenticeship is great too, I know it’s not as usual, but you’ll learn great things there.” 

“Why us?” Ryuuko inquired, picking up on her friend’s mood. “Does it mean we need to improve more? That we are unfit for teamwork?” 

“What? No ! Where did you get that idea?” Iruka seemed gobsmacked. “It’s the opposite really, when this kind of situation happens, we look for who would be willing to take students in apprenticeship, and would benefit the kid the most. In your case, you managed to catch the interest of the most unexpected people.” 

Ryuuko raised an eyebrow, looking quite sarcastic and judgmental at those words, as if to say ‘No shit?” 

“And that’s a good thing? Cause I don’t remember encountering anyone like that, does that mean our mentors will be creepers ?” 

Iruka almost fainted at the idea of calling that person a creeper. 

“Please don’t call them that.” 

“I’ll call a dog a dog.” Ryuuko replied, feeling satisfied at the small smile on her friend’s face. 

That would have to suffice for now, at least until they meet these mentors, thought she couldn’t say if it was one person or several. 

Eventually, their teacher (well, used-to-be-teacher) led them to the office of the Hokage. Cause, you know, why not, obviously their mentors couldn’t be bothered to come at the academy like everyone else, might as well bother their military head yeah? Iruka knocked, and they were shortly after that invited in, in time to meet several people in the office, Hokage included. 

The more noticeable out of them all was without a doubt the man in black with multiple scars on his face. He was intimidating, there was no question about it, and his expression was hard to read, but his posture seemed calm. On the other side of the room, leaning on the wall, was a brown headed man who looked quite bored and was playing with a senbon between his teeth, which what the fuck that was dangerous but whatever right? 

They all looked to the door when they got in, and Momiji found the intensity of those three staring unnerving. She had never met the Hokage in person but from afar or in a crowd, so that was another pressure to add to the lot, which she decided to defuse by bowing to show her respect. Next to her Ryuuko had half a mind to say screw this, but ended up mimicking her friend with a sigh. 

“Ah, Iruka you’re here, with Momiji and Ryuuko. How did the morning went?” The Hokage asked in a very grandfatherly manner. 

The two girls rose from their bowing position and said nothing as Iruka retold quickly the team attribution of the morning. Instead of listening to what they had experienced firsthand, they focused on the two other ninja, wondering who was going to be their mentor. Realizing they would be separated for good was a real let down (another one) but there was nothing to do about it. 

The two men were observing them too. Neither seemed impressed by what they were seeing, but the man in black had a smirk. 

“I see, that’s good. Now, I believe the waiting must be agonizing, so let's get on with your two students’ case.” 

Which didn’t sound ominous. At all. 

“As you probably guessed, your apprenticeship will involve these two man, Morino Ibiki is a tokubetsu jounin specialised in interrogation and the head of the T&I, and Shiranui Genma is also a tokubetsu jounin part of my special guards.”

Ibiki was the Scar Man, and Genma the bored out of his mind one. From that observation alone, Momiji realised that Ibiki was probably the one that Ryuuko had dubbed the Creeper, because if anything he at least looked like he wanted to be there, and as a department head he could do what he wanted, whereas Genma looked like this was nothing but an annoying chore, and being at the direct order of the Hokage he was only obeying order. 

“All our your graduate classmates have been sorted into different teams that complement their strength, and with a jounin-sensei that can nurture their skills the right way and teach them teamwork. Now, it isn’t often that we have an odd number of graduates, and it would be unfair to reject one or two students who did well, which is why we came up with the apprenticeship as a temporary measure.”

“A temporary measure, Hokage-sama?” Momiji noted, before connecting the dots. 

“Does that mean that, maybe, there was another student from last year, currently in apprenticeship, that would be available for completing our team?” 

She tried her best to erase the hope from her voice, but it still showed. Ryuuko was interested too, because that reasoning didn’t sound too far stretched. 

The hokage smiled. 

“That’s a very good deduction. You are right Momiji, there is a teammate waiting for the both of you.” 

“But” Ryuuko interjected. “If this teammate has been waiting a year or more, that means he has a lot more training than us, the skill gap is going to take a while to close up. Besides, that doesn’t explain why there are two jounin here right now.” 

“Ah, well, you’re the heir of the Uzumaki’s Fuinjutsu, and I happened to have worked with the Fourth Hokage and his wife who both were Seal Masters.” The Bored- Genma said. “I won’t be your jounin sensei, but I’m expected to supervise your learning.” 

“I’ll be your genin team teacher.” Ibiki declared, staring at them intently but offering a smile; 

A moderate smile, but a smile nonetheless. The two girls bowed politely. 

“Well, if you manage to succeed the survival training first that is.” He added.

Was Ryuuko seeing things or was the smile much more sadistic than before? 

The two girls left the building with mitigated feelings, and without too much thought they both walked together to a small out-of-the-way tea house that offered lunch as well as sweets. They sat at their booth at the far end of the room, and only when they both had a bowl of cold soba with a teapot of jasmine tea did they actually started to talk. 

“Well, shit. Way to get our expectations wrecked.” Ryuuko finally uttered numbly. 

“We first said we wouldn’t be on a team, then that we would, then that we could if we succeed in some new trial from our maybe future sensei.” Momiji raised a finger for each step. 

Then she laid her head on the table with a desperate moan. 

“Why can’t things be straightforward?”

“Well, I don’t know, maybe cause, you know, ninja.” 

“Don’t sass me when I’m already down, Ryuu, that’s just mean.” Momiji pouted. 

“Eat your soba, Momo. And then we can plan properly for that test.” 

The next ten minutes were spent gathering their wits and slurping noodles. It had been an emotionally wearying morning, and they needed some time to recover before getting ready for tomorrow. Eventually, they started to brainstorm while sipping on their tea. 

“He said survival so we should go with the full dark outfit.” 

“Do we know how long it’s gonna last ? We should prepare for a few days in the woods in case.” 

“Take as much gear as possible without weighing ourselves too much, got it.” 

“He said to meet him at ground 13. Wanna go take a look?” 

“Sure.” 

They had to go ask at the front desk of the hokage tower, where two Chuunin were bickering, bored out of their mind. One had spikey hair and a bandaid on his nose, and the other had a benny and a long strip of hair. After teasing them a bit, they gave them the direction to Ground 13, but the girls didn’t understand their laughter until after they got there. Ground 13 was… 

“How do I put that… It’s going to be a nightmare, isn’t it?” Ryuuko sighed.