"Please forgive him...Raiden is...not well."
Not well, eh? God, Kusinada wanted nothing more than to knock that ‘unwellness’ from his dirty, selfish little-
She mustn’t think like that. She must not whip people with her thoughts. She was changing. Starting over. She didn’t have to protect herself with biting comments anymore. Her mother was miles away from here, and her influence didn’t even reach half that length. Kusinada would probably never outrun her father’s legacy- no, she didn’t want to. She didn’t like the fear of being completely unknown, of being helplessly alone in what seemed like a new world. Her father’s legacy, as infamous as it was, protected her from that. Even if people hated her. Raiden did, obviously.
“Stay away from me! You’re so lucky my family is letting you stay here or you’d be out on the streets like the repulsive Uchiha trash you are!”
She cringed mentally at the remembrance of his statement. He was painfully wrong. If Naruto hadn’t taken her in, she wouldn’t even be on the streets. She’d be back out in the forest wandering. And really, it wasn’t only Naruto she had had to count on. It was Lee and his team, the people of Konoha, Hanako, even Hinata. She needed all of their support and guidance to get to where she was sitting. She really was trash, she supposed.
‘But, even trash can be recycled and made into something new. ’
As pitifully strange as it sounded, Kusinada was recycling. She was the dirty useless trash that would be made into something new. It didn’t happen instantly, but someday, someday she would show that emotionally impaired-no, no wrong!- that stubborn, blonde man that she was capable of becoming something else.
Her family name would not stop this determined young woman.
Kusinada hadn’t realized how deep in thought she had been until Manami coughed. She wasn’t sure right now if it was a cough to get attention, or just that, a simple dust induced cough. God knew he had been around enough.
“Raiden.” She said aloud, without knowing where to go from there. “He’s…”
‘He’s…’
“He’s entitled to his opinions.” She managed. Naruto looked over at her sympathetically, knowing what she must really be feeling. What must she really be feeling? She supposed she should hate him, but it just didn’t feel right…yet.
‘Yet.’
She glanced over at Manami. He had almost finished what was salvageable of his meal, and would probably look to leave once he had. “I’m sorry you had to witness that,” Kusinada said solemnly. It was kind of hard to be cheerful in a situation like this.
“Naruto-sama. You’ll allow me to be a Konoha shinobi, won’t you?” she asked quietly.
Naruto looked up at her. She had changed so much in these past few hours, and he knew it. “I already consider you one.”
“Arigatou.” She inclined her head slightly, and lock of her long black hair fell in her face, distorting the view she had of her sushi plate. She was still scared. She trusted Naruto, and she was confident in her place in Konoha, but she knew that there would always be people like Raiden. She’d have to face them- probably many of them, and hope to one day change their view of her. It would be hard. But life was hard. That was the whole point of it. If life wasn’t hard, what would be the point of living it?
Kusinada smiled sadly. Everything life threw at you was just something to help you get through something else.
“Well, I suppose now’s a good a time as any,” Naruto mumbled then. “Everyone’s already glum and-“ He sighed. “Everyone. I have something to say.” He stood up. “Recently, I’ve been receiving….interesting reports of movement in other shinobi villages. Many of them, including the other great nations have been focusing their attention on gathering weaponry. Some have sent spies to other villages. We don’t know quite what this means yet. We can’t find anything on what these weapons are meant for, but it’s obviously not good.”
Kusinada froze up. Weapons? Movement? Was there going to be another shinobi war? That couldn’t happen! Not now! She had just found a place that was more peaceful than anywhere else on the planet. She- She had just found home.
“We can’t know for sure that another war is about to start. But in all honesty, that’s the only reasonable explanation.”
“N-Naruto-kun! Wh-why did you wait to tell us this now?” stammered Hinata.
“I didn’t want to worry everyone. But seeing as Raiden’s already ruined the mood at this dinner table, I figured this would be the best time. I don’t want this leaking to the village until we have more to go on, though.”
Hanako spoke up then. “Amegakure?” It was one simple word, but it carried so much meaning. Amegakaure was the one village people hoped to never hear movement from again. It could mean so many things- revenge for their home being destroyed, anger at the death of their ‘God,’ the Akatsuki leader, or even the return of Akatsuki. Whatever the case, Amegakure was not a village Konoha wanted to hear about.
“Nothing yet.”
The mood in the room relaxed a little. But it was short lived. Just because there wasn’t movement today didn’t mean there wouldn’t be tomorrow. Just because they were going to crawl safely into their beds tonight didn’t mean they wouldn’t be fighting for those beds next week. They had to prepare. Tension was rising, and not just between Konohaers.
The nations were holding their breath. These next few weeks would decide whether a war would indeed begin or not.
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