Ch21- Betrayal

It hadn't been long since Nozomi and Namiko had returned and they were finally able to go home, where Yui and Pakura immediately jumped into their embrace with Agusa and Ashika following closely behind.

While they were deemed as KIA after only a few months of missing, the hope of them surviving wasn't dead until at least two years later.

However, after they had been missing for over two years, chances had become slim for their return and their family had finally stopped their pain of maintaining hope.

But now, as they saw those two people directly in front of them, they were ecstatic.

It took Nozomi and Namiko almost 8 hours until they were able to get the siblings to sleep since they wanted nothing more than to share and listen to their stories.

Since they hadn't seen each other in over 3 years, both of them easily relented when asked to be allowed to sleep together, something they hadn't done since the twin Nightmares of their parents' death had stopped.

***

"Nozomi, we have to talk."

It had been a few hours since the twins had gotten to bed, and Yui had approached Nozomi to talk about something important.

Confused by the sudden seriousness, Nozomi silently followed Yui to her room, where she sat down on the bed with Yui standing near her desk.

"Naruto is learning how to control the Kyuubi's chakra and the Genjutsu on him will soon crumble. We will have to renew it before it completely breaks or he will be out of our control."

It surprised Nozomi to hear this, as she had originally made the Genjutsu be able to evade the Kyuubi's chakra. As she thought about hiding something from Naruto, Nozomi questioned her previous actions, due to living together with Himari for 6 years.

She wondered if she should truly continue using Naruto, something she had felt guilty about ever since the start. This was also one of the things she had consulted Himari about, with whose help she had finally settled on a side.

"I won't, it would be too dangerous and I still have Namiko. And for her, I don't need a Genjutsu since she would listen to me anyway. Though her loyalty wouldn't necessarily be to Iwagakure."

"...You know, I've learned a lot in the last years when I was living together with my girlfriend, Himari, which included learning not to follow everything I am ordered to do since it will not always be the correct choice. I was skeptical at first, but she showed me that she was right.

While my loyalty still lies with the Tsuchikage, I won't blindly follow every order I'm given. I still do not know if this was the correct choice, but this is my final decision."

These words caused a pause in Yui's thinking as dark thoughts began crawling into her mind.

"You. have. a. girlfriend?" Yui asked forced. "How?"

"Yup, she just told me she'll be my girlfriend from now on and to introduce her as such if I mention her to friends and family."

The emotions hidden beneath the way Nozomi was saying Himari's name, made the last bit of something in her snap as her demeanor dropped and her jealous thoughts came to a halt.

"Alright, it's your decision. I'll go to sleep now if you excuse myself."

***

"Please don't leave us again! You just made it back!"

"You can't die, believe it!"

"We just survived that shitty trial and you want to go throw it all in the garbage?!"

"Don't even think about dying! I won't allow it, not after you saved me."

"Damn, this takes so much strength... . Don't you dare die now. I haven't opened my closed heart, just for you to die."

"Did you really think you could disobey Iwa's orders? Laughable. Not like I care, but if I can't have you, no one will. Oh and don't worry, I've already informed the Tsuchikage that you betrayed them and I'll be taking over."

Himari was furious. Unlike her mother, she was able to observe what was happening in the world and had as such quickly noticed, how Nozomi had collapsed only a few weeks after returning home.

Unfortunately even she had missed whose fault it was and the only thing she knew was, that her girlfriend was close to dying and she was unable to do anything about it.

While she could only hope for the best, Nozomi was in a coma. While her mind was still active, her body had become unresponsive.

She was able to hear each whisper spoken to her and each movement made. She noticed every single detail going on inside her hospital room. The only thing she was unable to do, was moving any part of her body.

It took days of trying and trying, until she was finally able to move slightly, which was mainly thanks to Tsunade's great medical skills and her improved body after a few too many nightly activities with Himari.

Unfortunately, Tsunade was still the Hokage, making it impossible for her to lead the making of the cure which was left with Shizune in the end, who was assisted by Sakura.

***

Her eyelids fluttered open as she slowly began trying to move her muscles. It took a whole hour just to sit up and another half to be ready to stand.

*thud*

It wasn't that surprising that she was unable to stand and was now lying on the ground. Naturally, the loud noise instantly alerted the Person standing right outside of the room, ready to enter.

"Nozomi! You can't move yet! You just woke up after being in a coma for days!"

The only answer she got was silence, as Nozomi once again tried to stand up. This time however, Yui was there and caught her before she was able to collapse once again.

Having enough of her stubbornness, Yui helped Nozomi to her bed where she laid down once again. As she lay there, she just observed the room, her body, but mainly Yui.

It didn't take long for Yui to notice the stare, which was constantly on her, but she heeded it no mind as she called for a nurse and made her way home to inform the others.

***

It had already been a week and Nozomi's reactions were still quite dull. She didn't talk and rarely listened. Most of the time, she would only stare at the people coming to visit her while mainly being focused on Yui for some reason.

The person in question didn't know whether she should feel happy or bad about the attention.

Today was the 9th day since Nozomi had woken up. The whole family had something to do, as such Yui was tasked with looking after Nozomi for the day.

Since there was nothing to do, Yui just concentrated on her book while sitting next to her.

"W-why?"

The sudden sound startled Yui, who immediately looked up from her book, only to stare inside those dull, lifeless purple orbs.

"Are you alright? If it takes too much out of you then don't speak." Yui's voice was full of care and concern while Nozomi just continued staring at her.

"Y...you, t*cough* tried, k..illing m..e ."

Yui's pupils dilated as she digested her words. She didn't expect Nozomi to think that she tried killing her. Something one would never hope a family member to think. Due to panic, she was unable to notice the weak presence that coiled her arms around Nozomi's body before disappearing again.

"Are you sure you are alright? I don't know what kind of dream you had, but calm down first."

Those words made her fall deep in thought. It was true, did she truly know if these happenings during her coma had truly happened? But it felt so real.

As she continued thinking about her thoughts and contemplated Yui betraying her, the pain in her chest woke her up from her unresponsive state.

As she looked down, she saw a kunai in her chest. The pain, which she thought had been an unknown emotion, had been the result of Yui stabbing her with a kunai.

Looking up at the smiling Yui, only one word appeared in Nozomi's mind. "Wh..y."

"I told you didn't I? If I can't have you, no one will. I gave you time because you thought you needed to figure out if you 'loved' me, but suddenly you come back with a girlfriend of all things. And the worst thing is, that I don't even know where she is, leaving me no chance to kill her!"

"And not only that, you dare to disregard an order made by our Lord Tsuchikage and even think about not using Naruto anymore! What a disgrace of a tool you are!"

Comprehension dawned on her, as she realized that Yui's place by her side might have been planned from the start. She wouldn't even be surprised if Iwa had known how she would react at that time and thus made Yui stay by her side instead of leaving with the real victims.

From the start, Yui had only been there to observe her and make sure that she stayed obedient.

As those thoughts clouded her mind, Nozomi felt lightheaded as black dots began covering her vision, making her fall onto the grinning Yui.

***

Tsunade was tired. While she was more than glad that two strong shinobi had returned alive, the paperwork that followed was killing her. And now, their parent figure had even collapsed and was transferred to the hospital.

She needed a break.

Taking a bottle of sake, she decided to wander the streets of Konoha, which were buzzing since it was late in the evening.

As she stirred up from her thoughts, she decided to look where she was and was shocked to know, that she was standing in the hospital in front of Nozomi's door.

While she was surprised how she had ended up here, she decided to make the best out of it and check up on her before going to gamble her wage.

"F*ck!"

What she saw inside, was not something she had predicted in her lifetime to see. A bloodied Nozomi was lying unconscious in her bed with a kunai in her chest, while another person was standing a meter away from the window while having a huge sh*t-eating grin on her face.

However, due to the darkness, Tsunade was unable to see the exact characteristics of the assailant.

Before she could even attack, the assailant had already escaped out of the window. Even though she wanted, she couldn't follow. She was a medical-nin and her job now was saving Nozomi's life once again, however she knew it was impossible to do so alone.

However before she could call for assistance, Suzune was already standing at the door, with multiple of the most skilled doctors of the village behind her.

Although she was confused about why they were there, she quickly ordered them to prepare for an operation.

"We need to be quick, she was already weak and is losing a lot of blood right now."

Luckily a room was still available, which was ready for an operation. Though no one knew why and they didn't care either.

It took 2 whole days for the operation to finish. There were hundreds of complications, but they luckily had all personnel there, that were needed to perfectly counter each one of them, something that sounded impossible.

While Nozomi was still in critical condition and could die at any point, they had done their best and now everything was left to her.

Either she pulled through or she gave up and would die.

It didn't take less than a week until her condition had finally stabilized enough for the doctors to finally catch up on the missed sleep. Even Tsunade hadn't had the chance to even drink during that time.

***

"You guys want to tell me, that the person that attacked Namaki Uzumaki was Yui, the owner of the restaurant? And to top it all Nozomi and Namaki are the same person, just disguised with a Henge that not even I could see through? What a fucking mess."

Since Nozomi had been injured to such an extent, her body had naturally released every single bit of chakra to help the healing process.

It didn't help, that it was suspicious for Namaki to suddenly disappear, only growing suspicions against her.

On top of that, was the mystery that multiple shinobi claimed to have gotten orders from Tsunade on the date of the attack on Nozomi.

These orders were, what made it possible for the Hokage to use 2 days of her time on surgery without being swarmed with work. Not only this but the village defense had been maintained perfectly while sending out a squad to search for the attacker.

Even the medical-nins and Shizune claimed to have been called upon by Tsunade without her knowing what they were talking about.

Although Namiko had an idea about what had happened, she told Tsunade that she would only answer her questions once Nozomi was awake.

None of them knew, that it would take over a year for her to even show signs of awakening and another two months until she was able to speak again, though it seemed like her ability to speak had been damaged heavily, making her rely on mainly pen and paper to communicate.

***

"You want to tell me, that you couldn't afford to go to the academy when you were a child and decided to enter to protect Namiko? Additionally, you practiced nothing but chakra control and the basic E-Rank Jutsu for multiple years after being taught by a drunken shinobi?

You do realize, that this is highly suspicious?"

They were vexed. Somehow, the T&I department was also unable to get anything out of her, growing Tsunade's suspicions even further.

But the worst thing was, she couldn't kill her. Not only was there Naruto, a young boy so similar to not only her brother but also her lover, but there were also Namiko, Agusa and Ashika who would be bound to hate the village if they would just kill her because of suspicions.

As such, she was allowed to remain in the Village. However her chakra was sealed and she was forbidden to leave the village's borders, becoming a prisoner.

Unbeknownst to them, they underestimated her family's loyalty. It would be easy for Namiko to get rid of the chakra seal and Nozomi to escape but she didn't.

She still hadn't failed her mission and her identity hadn't been compromised fully either.