Chapter 4: INK03: Trust and Realization

Author's Note: Minor note before moving on. There's a slight change in chapter one to fix a timeline issue that fumbled the order of events between the second and third shinobi war and the ages of certain characters. Aside from that, enjoy the rest of the story!

Iryo-nin Kasa (医療忍傘)

Chapter Three: Trust and Realizations

Two days ago, I lost my mother and got separated from dad. While I was lost, I made friends with Obito, the future evil villain of the world, under a pile of rubble. I somehow figured out how to activate the seals, left by my possibly dead mother, on my arms and learned I have a unique healing ability, when used, leaves permanent scars. I then found, I'm… not a really good healer. Obito was still half-dead when we escaped the rubble.

Once out, we made happy plans to skip back to Konoha hand-in-hand only to get assaulted by an evil Iwa-nin. The evil ninja kicked our asses and tried to steal Obito's eye. Oh, he also tried to kill us. Luckily, Tesuri found us and killed the bastard in cold blood. Then he proceeded to heal Obito and we all lived happily ever after in a land of sunshine, unicorns and fairies.

No, I haven't lost it. I am still perfectly sane. I'm the sanest person in the room. Super sane even. Still don't believe me? Fine, I'm still going to mentally repress the trauma of this event in the form of a children's coloring book, drawn with neon crayons and rainbows…with stickers. Pretty, glittery stickers.

Joking aside, we didn't get to Konoha immediately after defeating the Iwa-nin. How could we? We were on the border of the Land of Fire. It would take a week to get there by foot with sufficient supplies as a ninja. Not only do we not have supplies, we also have an injured Uchiha with a valuable kekkai genkai and a completely useless civilian child.

To top it off, it wasn't even the worst news. The worst was finding out the Iwa-nin Tesuri KO-ed was a scout form an even bigger team. The saying one roach in sight equates to more out of sight matched our current situation. If they were unaware of us, we could've at least hide and wait it out. Unfortunately, this wasn't the case and we were pursued with barely any time in between for rest or healing.

"Kasa, keep quiet and stay out of sight," whispered Tesuri after he did what he could for Obito. "I'll draw their attention away."

I moved to argue against the bad parody of mom's last moments, but he held a hand over my mouth to halt my protests.

"None of that now. I'll come back for you, but until then. Stay alive," said Tesuri. He rummaged through his pockets and pulled out what looked like a strange string of charms and tied it around my neck. "Don't lose this. This will keep you safe."

"Boy, can you hear me?" He directed the question to Obito, who nodded tiredly without opening his eye. "I saw what you did back there for Kasa. I owe you a great debt, thank you. Please continue to keep her safe."

"Heh," chuckled Obito softly. "No prob, but I'm not in the best condition to do anything."

"If worst comes to worst, Kasa will know what to do," replied Tesuri.

Wait, what? What do you mean I know what to do? Do what? I wanted to ask, but his firm hand remained clasped over my mouth, preventing me form doing so.

"Remember, stay quiet, stay safe. I'll find you again," promised Tesuri as he planted one last kiss on my forehead. He left the hollow tree and covered the opening with various shrubs from the surrounding area to hide our location.

I wanted to scream after him, but the words died at my lips as his disappeared and the world grew silent.

"Don't worry," whispered Obito reassuringly. "Your dad will be fine."

He'll be fine, but what about us? I shuffled uncomfortably and hugged my knees for comfort. With how often I get left behind, I seriously thing I'm going to develop separation anxieties. We listened to the pursuit in the safety of our hideout. Neither of us said anything as we tried to tally how many Iwa-nins were outside.

One hour, two and eventually it started raining.

"I think they're gone," murmured Obito.

"Can you move?" I asked. "Dad healed you didn't he?"

"Not at the moment," grunted Obito as he tried to shift his weight. "While iryo-ninjitsu is amazing in healing injuries, there's a draw back that it eats a lot of chakra from both the medic and patient. I can't do much until my chakra stores recover. Might take a while."

I rested my chin on my knee. "So, do we just wait?"

"Yeah, and hope the rain keeps them from finding us," noted Obito.

I nodded quietly and fell silent. Even though I should be thankful for this downpour, I still hated the rain.

"Hey, Kasa," started Obito.

"Hmm?" I glanced at him and noticed he held out his hand.

"Give me your hand." He grinned despite the exhaustion on his face.

A faint smile tugged at my lips as I reached for his. Unlike last time, his hand didn't glow with chakra, but that didn't make it any less warm and comforting. This was his way of saying everything will be fine. If it was anyone else I might have been more skeptical, but with Obito… somehow hope didn't seem out of reach.

The rain continued on, Obito drifted to sleep, lulled by the pitter-patter of raindrops. Normally, I would succumb to the rain's lullaby, but something about what Tesuri said earlier bugged me. I tugged on the rustic looking necklace and stared at the odd looking charms dangling from the string. Five different charms, all evenly spaced.

Don't lose this. This will keep you safe.

What did he mean? I studied each of the individual charms with interest. They seemed a bit random in design, wings, balls and a circle plate? They were evenly spaced, attached to the string by different colored rings. There must be something special about it, why else would he give it to me? I stared at it a bit longer hoping to find something, but there was nothing to be noted.

"Maybe it's one of those luck charms from the temple or shrines." I muttered under my breath and dropped it back around my neck. "I wonder how long this rain will last."

Eventually, I loss to the rain's lullaby and fell asleep.

"Come on Kasa," said Obito as he pulled me out of our hollow tree the next morning.

His complexion looked better, but not by much with his arms still covered in various shades of purple and blue. On the bright side, the limp in his gait was gone. Tesuri must've fixed it before he left, thinking it was better to have a fully useable leg to run away than a half healed body in an uneven fight.

Despite his bruised arms, he scooped me up and raced through the treetops. Logically, it was the safer option. My slow pace would raise the probability of enemy encounters. Still, it must hurt to have me pressed against all those bruises and jostling around each time he jumped.

"There should be a Konoha outpost near here. If we can get there, we should be fine," noted Obito he raced through the trees.

I must say, I'm impressed with his depth perception given how recent he lost his eye. Or was he relying on his sharingan to compensate? Curious, I glanced up to his eye to find it was still dark. He wasn't using the sharingan.

"What do you want to do first when we get back to Konoha?" asked Obito offhandedly to pass the time.

"Huh?" I glanced at him, confused.

"Since your dad left you under my care, you're coming back to Konoha with me. So, what do you want to do first when we get back?"

… We're not even sure if we could make it to the outpost alive yet and he wants to make plans back at Konoha? Was he delusional or just optimistic? Seeing the grin on his face, he might be both.

"I don't know." I shrugged, an action I regretted when I notice how he fought back a grimace. "What do you want to do?"

"Hmm… good question. What should I do when I get back?" pondered Obito as he jumped pass a tangle of branches and headed upwards for another tree. "I should probably find my team and tell them I'm alive." A snigger escaped him as he lingered on the thought. "Can you image their faces when they find out? Oh! Or maybe I should prank them and pretend to be a ghost or something."

"That's mean." I bit my lower lip, resisting the urge to laugh.

"But funny," quipped Obito with a wink. Probably not the best thing to do while running on treeto with only one eye. "Whoa!" He tripped, clenching to me tightly as he resist the urge to flail and drop me. He stuck his feet on the tree with chakra and did a weird worm wiggle to regain his balance.

I covered my mouth to stifle the chortle. This guy was too much.

"Whew! That was a close one!" He grinned sheepishly, not all that embarrassed by his foul up.

I lost it and cracked up laughing.

"Now that's much better," chirped Obito. "We're almost there, no more frowns okay?"

I reigned my uncontrollable laughter down to a snigger before nodding. It wasn't until much later that I realized what Obito managed to do what even Tesuri and Somoku couldn't. He won me over. Despite how he nearly killed me with his clumsiness earlier and the possibility of him becoming the murderous Tobi, I couldn't help but like him.

I really hope he doesn't become Tobi. I wouldn't want to face him in battle.

"Identify yourself," ordered the outpost guards defensively with their kunais in sight.

Obito made sure his hitai-ate was shown clearly as he placed me down on the ground next to him. "Obito Uchiha, chunin, I was separated from my team several days ago after an ambush in the forest, 40 kilometers northwest. I have a civilian with me."

"Uchiha?" The two guards raised a brow not all that surprised. Maybe his death wasn't common knowledge yet? "Do you have identification codes?"

"Code?" Obito blanched at the question and rolled his eyes skywards in annoyance. "Ah crap! Minato sensei and that bastard Kakashi usually dealt with those!" He groaned, resisting the urge to drop to the ground and sulk.

The guards stood cautious, raising their kunais at the ready.

"Obito?" Why did he have to choose this moment to be an idiot?

The Uchiha muttered a mantra under his breath as if reciting something from memory. He was reciting another verse before he snapped his fingers in realization. "I'm an idiot! Duh! I'm an Uchiha, can't believe I could finally use this stupid code. The crimson moon sets upon a sea of blood," recited Obito, flaring his sharingan to life.

I bit back a grimace. A bit morbid isn't it?

The guards didn't relax. "…You don't act like an Uchiha."

Obito nearly planted his face to the ground. "You've got to be kidding me!" snapped the one-eyed Uchiha. "Of all the—I finally get my sharingan as proof to use that stupid code and you say I don't act like an Uchiha? What kind of bull shit is this?"

"Do you have another code?" asked the guards.

"This is harassment!" griped Obito.

The guards slipped into a defensive stance.

"Okay, okay!" Obito held up his free hand defensively as he wracked his brains for an answer. "Uh… uh…?"

"How about you tell me why you're late again instead? Obito-kun," interrupted a feminine voice.

Obito's eyes lit up as a bright grin crossed his face. I followed his line of sight and noticed a familiar shade of red hair. Mom? No. Not her, but she had the same shade. I couldn't help but stare. "Kushina-san!" shouted the Uchiha in relief.

The woman smiled, but it was far from genuine. "You didn't answer my question Obito-kun. You were so late that Minato told me that your team now knows you as the late Obito Uchiha."

Had I been less sensible, I would've said, "Ooh, nice word play." However, my desire to live was greater than the desire to crack wise-ass jokes.

Obito scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Sorry, sorry! I kind of got lost near the end of the road of life, but then I came across this cute little girl here and she helped me find my way back. She got separated from her parents you know. I couldn't very well just let her wander alone without a friend right?"

... I stared at Obito, completely dumbfounded. Did he just explain what happened to him in the last three days with a why I was late excuse?

Kushina stared at him for a moment before glancing briefly at me with a curious eye. "He's cleared," said the redheaded kunoichi as her stance relaxed and her fake smiled soften to a genuine one.

The guards glanced between her and Obito before they stood down their guard. "Next time remember your codes," suggested the guard in mild annoyance.

"Will do!" said Obito as he tugged me along and hurried after Kushina. We went as far as ten feet before the woman turned to Obito with the most frightening of smiles.

"Obito-kun," purred the woman dangerously. Her crimson hair took a life of its own as it flailed wildly behind her like demonic limbs. "Don't get lost at the end of the road again."

"K-Kushina-san?" He shrunk under her scrutiny with a comical look of fear on his face.

"Because next time, I'll personally go there. Drag you back in the most gruesome manner possible and eviscerate you piece by piece with my bare hands until you wished you never took a step towards that part of the road." Her smile never faded, but she grew more and more terrifying with each passing second. "Do I make myself clear?"

A horrified squeak escaped the Uchiha's throat as he hastily nodded, too terrified to utter a single word.

"Good, I'm glad we're clear," said the woman with a deceptively sweet smile. Her demonic hair settled back down and she patted Obito's trembling form with a fondness that was commonly used for young children and pets.

I stared at her with growing admiration. Never before have I heard such a beautifully carried out death threat. "You are so… cool..."

Kushina paused in surprise at my unexpected response.

"How does your hair do that? Can you teach me? It's so pretty!" I wonder if I could learn it? I've never seen mom do it, so it might not be a Uzumaki thing, but how cool would that be to scare the crap out of people by having your hair look like it was possessed?

Obito turned to me in disbelief as if asking what the hell was wrong with me.

She grinned wryly as I tugged at my hair in a mock imitation of hers. I'm not exactly sure how genetics work in this world, but I can't seem to make sense of the gene inheritance when it came to hair color.

Normally, if you had parents with different hair colors, you either get one or the other depending on the roulette of recessive or dominate genes, but here, it seems like if you had parents with bizarre hair, you end up with even stranger hair. Using Sakura as a prime example, her mom has blond hair and her dad has this weird dark lavender hue and somehow she ends up with a bright pastel pink color. I on the other hand have a mother with bright red hair and a father with pale blue hair and I end up with this weird blend of dark red and plum.

How does this make any sense?

"Who is this, Obito?" asked Kushina curiously when we reached the living quarters. We were both given a hot drink and something to eat.

The one-eyed Uchiha grinned as he gave me a fond hug; I stumbled to not spill my drink and sent him a glare. "This is Kasa, my little life savior."

"Life savior?" Kushina raised a brow.

"Yep, if not for her I'd be dead," noted Obito proudly.

Kushina frowned. "Explain."

Obito rubbed the back of his head awkwardly as he tried to piece together his thoughts. "Uh… what do you know about what happened?"

"Not much. KIA was as much as I got from Minato when I saw him yesterday," answered Kushina.

"They were here?" His eye widened, startled by the news.

"They were coming back from finishing the mission. They looked terrible, especially Kakashi," murmured Kushina quietly.

"Oh." Guilt crossed Obito's face.

"What happened?" asked Kushina again and glanced at me with a studious eye. I hid behind my cup. Crap, I was so busy worrying about dying, I hadn't thought about a possible interrogation.

"We were ambushed, Rin got kidnapped. Kakashi and I had a fight… things happened, but eventually we went after Rin." Obito scratched the side of his face, uncertain how to continue. "We managed to save Rin, but…"

"But?" questioned Kushina.

"We ended up getting trapped in an earth-based jutsu," grimaced Obito. "Kakashi injured his eye earlier and he didn't notice a boulder coming at him… so I pushed him out of the way." He laughed sheepishly. "I ended up getting crushed under it instead. Silly huh?"

"What?" snapped Kushina, wide-eyed in disbelief. "What do you mean you were crushed?"

He shrugged. "Crushed, half my body was flattened, I couldn't move or feel anything. We were trapped and they couldn't get me out."

"… Obito…" Kushina's voice grew quiet.

The Uchiha continued. "I told Rin to give Kakashi my eye. It'd be hard for them to escape, if he couldn't fight. He managed to take the guy out, but there were more of them." His eye darkened momentarily as he trailed off.

"They… didn't abandon you did they?" Kushina sounded almost angry.

Obito snapped out of his thoughts and turned to her indignantly. "What? No! I told them to leave me. I made them! If I hadn't they would've been buried along with me! They could've died!"

"You could've died!" snapped Kushina. "What were you thinking?"

"I wanted to protect them! What else could I do?" argued Obito. "To me, they're the most important people in my life along with you and Minato sensei!

Kushina grew silent, touched by his words. She them turned her attention to me. "So where does Kasa here come in?"

"I'm not all too sure what happened. I was close to giving up when I heard her crying," admitted Obito. "She was terrified, said her mom was dead. That she was lost and separated from her dad. I couldn't do much at that point aside from talking to her. One thing lead to another and she ended up healing me enough for me to get out of that mess."

"…You said you were crushed under a boulder and practically buried… How did she get there?" asked Kushina with a confused frown.

"The boulder did shift off when I was buried… Maybe she got pulled in?" A thoughtful look crossed Obito's face. "But that doesn't make sense either… We didn't see her before the ambush… Hmm… How did you end up there anyway, Kasa?"

I shrank under both of their gazes. "I don't know." I lied, there was no way I could explain everything without them asking more questions that I know I can't answer without seeming suspicious.

There was no way a little kid can know as much as I do and furthermore, I'm from another village. Despite my young age, they could still suspect me as a plant or a threat. Tesuri was an Ame iryo-nin and mom supplied them a great deal of seals. Either piece of information could land me a trip to T&I... I have no interest in finding out whether or not Ibiki joined their ranks yet.

"Where are you from Kasa?" pried Kushina.

"She's from Ame," answered Obito. "Her dad's an iryo-nin."

Damn it, Obito!

"You said she healed you… Did she use iryo-ninjitsu?" asked Kushina, her brows knitted together as she tried to make sense of the story. "She's a bit young…"

"No, that's the odd thing," waved Obito to oppose against her suggestion. "It's nothing like the iryo-ninjitsu Rin uses or anything. She didn't use any jutsus or anything. All she did was shove her hand in my mouth and made me bite her."

The red-haired woman froze. "You bit her?"

"She shoved her hand in my mouth!" protested Obito. "I didn't do it on purpose!"

"I'm not berating you," interrupted Kushina before she turned to me. "Are you sure that's what she had you do? What happened afterwards?"

The one-eyed Uchiha scrunched up his face in annoyance. "Yes, I bit her! But it was strange. The instant I bit her, it was as if a wave of iryo-ninjitsu flooded my body and fixed the half that was crushed... well, not completely, I was far from healed, but enough for me to use the Earth Style: Hidden Mole to get out of there."

Kushina nursed her lower lip as her eyes shifted rapidly, going through her thoughts a mile a minute. "Kasa, do you still have the bite mark from Obito?"

"Kushina-san!" whined Obito in exasperation. "You're not going to report me are you? It wasn't even in my control."

"Obito, shut up for a moment," snapped Kushina before repeating her question. "Kasa-chan, do you still have the bite mark?"

"I don't know. Obito wrapped it up." I answered hesitantly and raised the arm that was covered with bandages from my hand to my elbow.

"May I see?" asked Kushina.

I was reluctant. While she was considered family by blood, technically my parents were both in Ame's service until recently. If memory served me right, in the previous shinobi war, Ame and Konoha were not the best of friends. The fact Obito let slip that Tesuri was an iryo-nin was already against my favor. If they find out my mother was an Uzumaki capable of fuinjutsu… I don't want to know what'd they do to me.

Unfortunately, I had no excuse to keep her from seeing my injuries. I feared for the worst as I offered my hand to her. Kushina made quick work of my bandages and saw the bite mark. A frown crossed her face as she placed a hand over her right eye. The familiar diagnosis seal danced over her skin before she studied my arm.

She used the same seal mom used in one of her many lessons. Ah crap, she's going to notice the seals. This will not end well. True to my prediction, Kushina took no more than a passing gaze at before her eyes widened.

"These… These are Uzumaki seals! Where did you get these?" demanded Kushina as she gripped onto my arms tightly.

I grimaced, not expecting anger. "Ah!" I cried. My arms burned from where she gripped the marked skin.

"Tell me where did you get these seals," repeated the red-haired woman.

"Kushina-san, you're hurting her." Obito grabbed her, but she didn't let go.

"Mom put them on me!" I shouted when the pain grew too much to bear.

"…Your mother?" Surprise crossed her face as her hands slipped from my arms. I pulled away rubbing the tender skin. "What's your mother's name?"

"Kushina-san, stop scaring her," warned Obito as I scooted back a little. I wasn't scared, I just didn't want her grabbing me again… not that I could do anything to stop her if she decided to do it again.

"What is her name?" She asked again, staring into my eyes… There in her eyes, she wasn't angry. She wasn't even annoyed. She looked…hopeful? Longing?

Then it clicked. Her home village was gone. Her family and everyone she knew before she left for Konoha was either dead or lost to the four corners of this world. She hoped to find family, people who shared her blood. She was a jinchuriki, it was hard for her to find people like Minato who won't judge her for what she has to do for her duties.

I ducked down my head, breaking her gaze. Whatever seals Somoku placed on my arms have already damned my situation. There was no way I could get out of this staying silent, but what do I say? I really don't want to end up in T&I. I won't last ten minutes under torture. I hesitantly took a second glance hoping I could think of something, but when I saw her eyes, all thoughts of excuses left my mind.

She looked so sad and hopeful. The logical part of my mind screamed that she only has two or three more years left and that I shouldn't take any stupid risks ousting myself. There was no point in growing attached to her with her numbered days. Yet, every argument I made was moot the moment I saw her eyes.

"Kasa, can you tell me what your mother's name was?" asked Kushina again.

I mentally sighed, so hopeful, so sad… I never stood a chance. "Mom's name was Somoku… Somoku Uzumaki."

Her face frowned not recognizing my mother's name, but lit up when she heard the Uzumaki name, but grimaced when she remembered something. "Obito said your mother was…" She trailed off, unwilling to finish it. "Were there any other Uzumakis? Grandparents, aunts or uncles?"

"I don't know. It was always just mom and dad before…" I trailed off in realization. I hadn't noticed earlier because mom always kept me distracted with all her lessons and activities... She was gone now and dad… I had no clue where he was, but... "I'm… alone."

Surprise crossed my face before I realized I said it out loud. In moments, Kushina held me in her arms as if she was trying to shield me from whatever that was going through my mind. Even Obito looked solemn as he watched quietly with his single eye. I sat there dumbfounded, not knowing what to do. It wasn't as if I was immune to the feeling of loneliness. It was there, but I was a grown woman; I could deal with a bit of solitude.

Not to mention, there was the fear of getting hauled off to an interrogation session with T&I hanging over my head. Wasting time and wallowing in lonely thoughts was not at the top of my priority list. Don't get me wrong, I do appreciate their sentiments, but I had no clue how to respond in these situations. Do I say something? Say nothing? What do five-year-olds normally do in this situation?

My mind drew blanks before I finally decided to lean into the hug. Kushina seemed like she needed this more than I do. Not that I mind, it was always nice to be held and wanted. Though, I do wonder if this world would be a nicer place if everyone just got more hugs? I raised my arms to return the hug.

It doesn't hurt to try right?