Chapter Text
...~oO*Prologue*Oo~…
Jasmine Potter stared her eyes wide even as she collapsed her hands clasped to the gaping wound in her belly in a vain attempt to stop the bleeding. She couldn’t believe this, after everything they’d gone through, everything she’d done for them, still her eyes and dwindling magic couldn’t dispute the fact that they’d betrayed her.
Even as her vision began to turn grey she could make out their shadowy forms hovering above her, even as she tried to demand answers. Why? Why, why, why would they do this to her? She’d saved them! And this was how they repaid her? A pointblank blasting curse to the back in the guise of a hug? Talk about a Judas kiss of death.
Her heart screamed in betrayal even as their faces began to fade to black and in her last moments she cursed bitterly her foolish naivety and trust. For her last moments she suddenly found herself hoping their whole world burned and them with it.
She was almost startled as something heavy dropped on her and flames began licking before her eyes. If she’d had the breath she would’ve laughed at the irony that she wished for them to be burned only to begin burning herself. It was alright though, this burning thing, it didn’t hurt all that bad, despite the fact that it probably meant she was going to hell, she allowed herself to relax into them and drift away.
Hermione stared at the spot her once best friend had lain, with only the scorched floor to prove she’d been there at all, and slowly she turned to look at the other members left of the Order of the Phoenix to find their own faces as deathly pale as hers, none more so than her husband of ten years Ron.
The war had just ended, with Jasmine leading them to victory over Voldemort, but it had been a long and bloody war, lasting nearly fifteen years. It had turned out Voldemort hadn’t been as easy to kill as they’d hoped that optimistic year on the run when the trio had been seventeen.
They had all changed during that time, none more so than Jasmine herself, which is why they’d decided as a group that she had to go. Hermione had argued vehemently against it at first, but had eventually been swayed because the rest of them were right, Jasmine had gotten increasingly violent in these last few years with little regard for mercy, and the spell she’d used to finally vanquish Voldemort? Hermione had never heard of it, and had let herself be convinced it had to be the darkest of arts. Having dipped into that what was to stop Jasmine from becoming the next dark lord?
Thus they’d planned to get rid of her, and then allow the wizarding world, or what was left of it to believe she’d gone out in a blaze of glory. She’d gone out in a blaze alright.
As they had watched her die, unable to bring themselves to look away after Ron did the dirty deed, blasting her in the back with the bombarda curse, snapping her spine and blowing her middle near clean away Fawkes had appeared in a blaze of blinding fire, Fawkes who hadn’t been seen since the death of Albus Dumbledore.
The group had stared as the bird lowered himself to Jasmine, sprawling across her chest, and gave a keening, tortured cry of pain, betrayal and anguish before lighting the two of them in a brazier of flame, leaving nothing but a pile of ashes and the scorch on the floor.
Unlike when Fawkes had a normal burning day, no small bird made its way out of the ashes, as an unnatural wind picked up and blew them all away, causing those still in the room to shiver in unease.
Hermione could feel dread building in her stomach, and while she’d never believed in divination she knew without a shadow of a doubt that somehow, someway by murdering Jasmine they had doomed the wizarding world because Jasmine had never been dark not at all.
Phoenixes were very light creatures and could not be swayed to the dark, for Fawkes to mourn Jasmine so completely that he chose to die with her rather than go on in a world without her meant that Jasmine was a light as it was possible for a witch fighting a war could be, and now she was gone, by their own traitorous hands she was gone, never to return.
Hermione couldn’t stop the small sob that fought its way into the dead silence of the room knowing they all knew the same things she did. They’d destroyed their hope, murdered it, and now they and the rest of the world would pay the consequences and there would be no Jasmine to save them this time.
…~oO*Oo~…
Kushina Uzumaki stared at the girl her mother had brought back with her hesitantly, not sure what to make of her. She could already tell the girl, who her mother said was named Riko was probably not an Uzumaki because her hair wasn’t red. Well it was, but it wasn’t like her own ruby colored hair that she shared with the rest of her clansmen.
Riko’s hair was a mixture of bright to dark reds mixed with threads of gold and orange. Kushina had no doubt that from a distance it would almost look like a fire, especially if the wind caught it like it was now and made it dance around her.
Kushina knew that in the last few months none of the other children had bothered to approach the girl, who’d been placed in the orphanage in Uzushiogakure with all the other Uzumaki children who’d been orphaned during the war. However she had been determined to do it, because her mother had told her she should be nice to the other girl if she ever met her.
Which had led to the situation she now found herself in, a staring contest with the girl, having marched right up and introduced herself, extending her hand in friendship.
Now Kushina could see why the other children had avoided her. Riko’s eyes, which were also the most pretty emerald green Kushina had ever seen, seemed almost empty, dead even. It was a gaze she’d sometimes seen in the older shinobi who returned from war, and sometimes even her mother had, had it when she thought Kushina wasn’t paying attention.
It hurt her, to see her mother with those eyes, and she wondered why Riko had them too, especially since Kushina knew she wasn’t a shinobi like her mother or the others. Still in some ways it made her even more determined to befriend Riku, to help her even if she’d already failed at it with her mother. It would be different with Riku, she was sure of it, because Riku was her age and Kushina wasn’t going to let her be sad anymore.
With that decided she returned the other girl’s gaze with even more forceful determination, despite the feeling that she was being judged somehow as those green eyes bored into her own with quiet intensity.
After several long seconds that felt like ages to the normally impatient and reckless Uzumaki girl, Riku reached out and clasped her hand back shaking it firmly, “Uzumaki, Riku.”
Kushina beamed, pleased to have gotten acceptance, she wasn’t about to let her new friend take it back, she clasped tightly on to her arm and dragged the girl off the tree she’d been leaning on before she’d approached her, determined to learn all about her new friend and teach her everything she needed to know about Uzushiogakure.
Pulling the bemused girl behind her in order to take her to her house to reintroduce her to her mother Kushina was determined she had made her best friend for life, now all she had to do was convince Riko of the same.
…~oO*Oo~…
Waking up after her supposed death at the hands of her once best friends had been a rather unnerving experience. After all, she’d technically died once before when she attempted to sacrifice herself for the wizarding world to hopefully get rid of the piece of Voldemort’s soul that resided in her scar, she thought she at least somewhat knew what to expect.
This death had been nothing like that, instead of waking in something like a heavenly version of King’s Cross station and then taking the journey onward, she’d instead woken with a splitting headache, with the scent of blood and decay in her nostrils.
Slowly pushing herself upwards she had glanced around, and assumed once more that she had been sent to hell. The view was hazy and filled with smoke and fire and there were bodies around her, and she was sure she was covered in blood due to the sticky disgusting feeling she’d become used to during the long war with Voldemort. The question was, was it her blood or someone else’s?
She’d whimpered reflexively her hands going to her head to cradle it and her eyes gluing themselves shut in an attempt to block it all out, along with the throbbing in her head that felt worse than when Snape or Voldemort had torn through her Occlumency shields and ravaged her mind, and the ache in her limbs that felt like the muscles had been torn to shreds.
The pain was so intense she had noticed nothing of what was going on around her until a hand a touched her head and she’d immediately tried to scramble away only to slip in the puddle of gore she’d been laying in.
Her vision was blurry, but she when she’d glanced up forcing her eyes open despite the hammering pain in her temples she had been able make out a woman with ruby red hair reaching down for her with what looked like concern on her face before screwing her eyes shut again and trying to stave off the nausea, which only got worse as she’d been promptly scooped up off the ground and into someone’s arms.
Despite the care the person took every running step had jarred her aching head something fierce and the pain reached astronomical levels before she was allowed to lose herself in blessed unconsciousness.
Only it hadn’t been true unconsciousness, instead she’d been dropped into her mindscape, the same one she’d spent hours trying to defend against Voldemort during the war, eventually succeeding but at a price because slowly but surely her mind had become something terrifying to behold taking the shape of a wrecked broken castle, Hogwarts to be precise, with all its tricks and twists, including the battle ready suits of armor and a poltergeist, Acromantulas and even a basilisk that all stalked the halls looking to kill any intruder they came across.
In her mind spells with deadly intentions flew everywhere such that entering her mind had been like being dropped in the middle of a battlefield, just like it had been on the day Hogwarts fell, but with deadly twists and traps.
The castle had looked even darker and more ominous than she’d remembered and the battle raged even harder with parts of the castle literally on fire. Hesitantly she’d walked to the building, passing easily through the battle, a small sphere of peace unto herself, as it was her mind, and it wouldn’t actually attack her, only those who tried to intrude.
With only instinct to guide her she’d made her way up through the castle ignoring the scorch marks and blasted walls missing large hunks of rock and into the former headmaster’s office, one of the places that was on fire. She’d been alarmed when that fire reached for her, and had almost pulled away only to hear a comforting song.
Glancing around she’d spotted a familiar figure on a perch next to the desk, somehow Fawkes the phoenix was in her mind. He’d trilled at her in welcome and she’d gone closer, reaching a hand to stroke his fiery plumage affectionately, no longer bothered by the flames that danced and licked over her skin.
The minute she’d touched him something had happened that she couldn’t put into words, and suddenly she was sharing thoughts with the beautiful firebird. It had been one of the strangest and most wonderful things she’d ever experienced.
Phoenix’s apparently didn’t think in words, but more in impressions and ideas. She’d always known Fawkes was intelligent, but being in his mind had been something else. The firebird was apparently ancient, and more wise than she’d ever suspected. To her surprise he’d apparently not been Dumbledore’s familiar, but instead had been tied to Hogwarts herself, having been around since its founding.
The contact with the phoenix hadn’t lasted long, just long enough for her to get the gist of what had happened to her. Apparently she had been a sort of catalyst for the wizarding world, with the power to bring goodness, change, and an era of peace unlike any before it.
When she’d died, murdered by her friends and comrades the last hope for wizarding kind had died with her. The world she’d left was doomed to a fiery death, and would only be renewed after it had been cleansed, a baptism of fire, much like the Phoenix’s rebirth.
Fawkes could’ve waited around to see it, the new world but he hadn’t really wanted to. He’d been inordinately fond of her, because she had such a bright, pure, soul, and had watched over her from the moment she’d set foot in the castle. The reason he’d come to save her with the sorting hat in tow hadn’t been because she’d showed loyalty to Dumbledore, but because she’d shown dedication to the fight against the dark and loyalty to the school.
For over twenty years he’d watched her struggles and triumphs longing to help but knowing better than to interfere but for that one time. When he’d seen the darkness that consumed her friends, those she’d considered family, and her death for the first time he too had wanted to die, was determined to do so because he was tired of watching this world cycle through times of love and hatred, especially since more often than not hatred snuffed out the light and love.
However he’d been determined that his death not be meaningless, and so with all the power he’d had left he’d healed her body and transported them away to a place where he hoped she could find her happiness and peace.
The place he’d brought her was another world entirely, a world controlled by people who called themselves ninja. The firebird had explained that she could make a new life here with the gifts he’d given her.
She’d tried to argue that a world of killers probably wouldn’t bring her much peace, especially if he expected her to fight again, and that she hadn’t been worthy of gifts or sacrifice.
Fawkes had been fondly amused by her, gently reminding her that killing did not equate dark, and that sometimes to protect the innocent one had to be willing to sacrifice their own innocence the way she had during the war, though he had also assured her that he had absolutely no expectations of her, this new life was a gift freely given, and she was free to do as she wished with it.
Jasmine had been a little overwhelmed, and humbled by the phoenix and hadn’t been sure what to say to that. She still wasn’t sure she was worthy of his regard, especially with all that had happened in the war, all the lives she’d taken, the things she’d done without remorse in an attempt to protect her friends and family.
Unfortunately there hadn’t been more time to talk, as Fawkes had informed her that time was running short before this version of him faded away into the ether. Apparently it wasn’t actually Fawkes himself just a sort of imprint of his consciousness that was sustaining itself on the energy left behind by his death.
His last advice to her had been to use the gifts he’d given her as she would, and when she’d asked what those were he’d simply given her a mischievous look and shrugged telling her she’d have to see for herself. The only thing he would tell her was that her magical core, which had been extraordinarily strong, hadn’t been lost, had instead been transported along with her to the new world and converted itself into the energy they used here, apparently called chakra.
However that was all he’d been able or willing to tell her and he’d left, slowing fading away from the perch she’d seen into her mindscape with one last affectionate trill, filled with hope and love before he’d disappeared, leaving her alone.
She’d woken then with a jolt to see a concerned woman leaning over her, the same woman who’d apparently rescued her whose name was Uzumaki Yasuhina. Feeling numb from her conversation with Fawkes and his subsequent death she’d answered their questions as truthfully as she could, she was an orphan, her family was dead, no she didn’t know how she came to be in the middle of a battlefield just off the shores of Uzushiogakure.
Later she thought it was probably a good thing she’d been numb as the people of Uzu had apparently rightly assumed she was in shock, just not from the bloody battlefield she’d come from. That combined with Yasuhina vouching for her and the fact that somehow someway she’d been de-aged and was currently looking to be around five years old had gained her entry into Uzushiogakure, a hidden village in the Land of Whirlpools.
She’d spent the next week after being dropped off at the orphanage still numb simply going through the motions, trying to figure out why this had happened to her. A couple of kids had tried to approach her, but had eventually turned away in fear or discomfort when she didn’t respond to them, only staring blankly until they left her alone.
The orphanage matron and the workers had also tried to get her to interact with her peers, but she had nothing to say to them. She was over thirty years old after all, and playing with kids more than twenty years her junior, or playing at all really, was completely uninteresting to her in the face of her death at her friends hands.
Eventually though the numbness had started to fade and had instead turned to anger, anger with the traitors who killed her, anger at Fawkes for not letting her die, and for the most part anger with herself for being so stupidly and pathetically naïve when it came to trusting others.
She’d burned with rage for over a week, completely terrifying the other children instead of just making them think of her as the strange outsider, which had eventually snapped her out of her rage and filled her with guilt because after all they were just children and while she didn’t look it anymore she was adult enough to know better than to take out her anger and frustration on those who didn’t deserve it.
After she’d cooled off some she’d spent long nights wondering why, why this had happened to her, why she couldn’t have just passed into the next life. In her weaker moments she’d wondered if maybe she should end it all, and go there anyway, after all no one would miss her here, but then she’d snap out of it, furious with herself for even thinking it because that would be a complete and total waste, a blasphemous disregard for those who’d given their lives to keep her in the land of the living, and so she lived on.
She started paying attention in classes and trying to determine what it was she wanted to do with her new life, while at the same time trying not to attract too much attention to herself, having a learned aversion to it after all the trouble it had caused her in her last life.
Unfortunately she’d been at a loss of what to do with herself, that is until Kushina Uzumaki had marched boldly up to her in the courtyard of the orphanage and extended her hand of friendship.
She’d been more than a little surprised by the small girl, who looked to be about the same age physically as she herself, and a part of her was more than a little amused, the redhead had guts, that much was for sure.
She knew nowadays she cut an intimidating figure, what with her wild flame like hair, a hallmark from Fawkes and apparently a manifestation of his gifts, combined with her eyes. The orphanage workers whispered about them when they thought she wasn’t listening saying they were creepy and dead looking, like the soul had moved on and left only an animated corpse behind, not only that they were intimidating, with a strange ability to look right through you.
She had a feeling that ‘look right through you thing’ was part of one of the gifts Fawkes had passed on to her that she’d just begun to explore. It had started when she looked into the eyes of one of her fellow orphans, an older child named Hiro and had the strange feeling he couldn’t be trusted. It raised the hairs on the back of her neck in a way that told her he was dangerous and she’d begun to keep a close eye on the boy, never letting him get too close
It was only later that she learned Hiro had been taking things from the other orphans, a regular thief in the making with a nasty attitude problem and a penchant for bullying the younger kids. Perhaps not surprisingly he’d never actually tried to pick on her, he, like all bullies, was a coward at heart, and despite appearing three years younger she intimidated him. Unfortunately these nasty habits hadn’t been exposed until after he sent two of the younger kids to the hospital after beating up one and pushing the other off a pier. The second boy had died, having been sucked into a whirlpool and been unable to fight the tides, they’d been unable to revive him after he’d been rescued by one of the fishermen and the first had been in a coma for a long while, they still weren’t sure if he’d ever wake up.
Alerted that her instincts had somehow been amplified when it came to judging other people she’d since tested this ‘power’ on all the kids at the orphanage along with the caretakers, vowing on the memory of the two innocent children to pay more attention to it in the future.
Since then only a couple had caught her attention, but none had provoked as wary a feeling as Hiro had, and so she left it alone, though she did keep a wary eye on those few, never allowing them at her back.
Through observation she noted that at least one of them was a bit of a petty thief, and another frequently cheated their way into getting better treatment at the expense of the other orphans. Admittedly they were survival strategies, and it wasn’t surprising that children at a slightly understaffed and underfunded orphanage would develop them, but it could lead to some issues down the road.
It was this gift that had prompted her to take Kushina’s hand that day, because for the first time she was actually sensing something good. It was as if the little girl could be trusted completely, and while she’d desperately tried to fight the feeling, having been stabbed in the back by those she’d trusted before, she couldn’t and so had allowed herself to reach out to the younger girl.
She had then spent the rest of the day having her ear talked off by the excited little girl. Apparently Kushina, like most Uzumaki, was hoping to be a kunoichi to protect people, and she liked ramen, flowers, and training with her mother, who was apparently the same woman who’d rescued her from the aftermath of a fight between Uzu and Kumo, and gifted her with the name Riko when she hadn’t been able to do more than nod or shake her head when answering their questions. Ironically Riko meant Jasmine child, and so even when she’d recovered the ability to speak she’d stuck with it.
Strangely she was not at all annoyed by Kushina’s chatter, happy to let the five year old fill in the silence. Kushina was more than happy to talk to her about everything and everyone as she pulled her around Uzushiogakure giving her the grand tour, and apparently not caring that Riko herself wasn’t all that fussed when it came to talking herself.
Kushina apparently knew a lot of people, and Riko quickly discovered from keeping half an ear on her and another on the people around them, that this was because Kushina was from the founding line of Uzumaki through her mother and was a bit like royalty, which definitely explained some of the suspicious looks of the adults and jealous stares of the younger children who’d apparently tried and failed to get close to the girl, leaving Riko a bit bewildered that Kushina had chosen her of all people to befriend.
“So what do you think of Uzu Riko-chan?” Kushina asked eagerly as the tour ended after she’d dragged her new best friend up to the cliffs that overlooked the village and pulled her down beside her so they could look out over it.
“It seems nice,” Riko responded slowly, and it did. Uzushiogakure was a very beautiful place that was built in a mix of traditional Japanese and modern architecture with beautiful scrolling carvings all over everything from buildings to streets to decorations. Kushina had thoughtfully explained to her that this scroll work was all seals, this world’s equivalent of Ancient Runes, and the seals were there to preserve things, and protect them. In fact the entire island was covered in them and that was actually their secondary and probably strongest means of defense outside the whirlpools that surrounded the island and gave it its’ name, which was the primary one.
It was definitely a military town and very different from what she was used to. The ninja thing was also a little strange, she was still getting used to seeing people hopping over rooftops and climbing walls. Still the people here both civilian and ninja alike all seemed pretty content, despite the fact that there was a war going on outside the walls.
“Just nice?!” Kushina demanded indignantly, waving her arms around for emphasis, “Uzu is way more than just nice, it’s the best place ever! Our ninja are the best, the strongest and the bravest ever you know!”
Riko felt her lips twitch in amusement at the incensed energetic child. She was kind of adorable with her flailing arms, round face, and red hair flying around her, “If you say so Uzumaki-san.”
Kushina looked positively aghast, “No, no, no Riko-chan! You’re my new best friend you’re supposed to call me Kushina-chan you know?!”
Her lips twitched again, the outraged, horrified expression on the little girl’s face was amusing to see, apparently Kushina was a very animated little girl.
“Alright Kushina-chan,” Riko told her easily. It felt better to not have to address the girl who was technically something like twenty-five years her junior so formally and respectfully, whirlpool princess or not.
“Yatta!” Kushina exclaimed eagerly, “So will you come over for dinner to my place tonight Riko-chan? I’m sure my kaa-san would love to see you again!”
Riko thought about it, usually she ate at the orphanage with the others and while food was never really scarce like it had been during her time at the Dursleys it tended to be very bland. Finally she shrugged and nodded. It wouldn’t hurt. She doubted the orphanage workers would even notice she was missing.
Kushina offered her a bright grin and led the way filling the silence with happy chatter as she walked side by side with her new best friend. Riko was kind of quiet, but that was okay, Kushina was sure she could make her talk eventually, it might just take a bit of work on her part.
“Tadaima!” Kushina announced brightly, “And I brought my new friend with me!”
“In here Kushina-chan,” a soft voice called. Riko hesitated for a moment, but that didn’t last very long as Kushina grabbed hold of her arm and dragged her into the kitchen.
“Kaa-san you remember Riko-chan right? She’s my new best friend,” Kushina told her mother eagerly, pulling her friend forward.
“Pleased to see you again Uzumaki-sama,” Riko said bowing politely to the woman who looked exactly like an older version of Kushina herself, with the same slightly rounded face, long red hair, and slight build, though her face was tempered with age, and didn’t have the childish eagerness of Kushina.
“Ah, Riko-chan you’re looking better, I see you’ve met my daughter, and if you really are her new best friend then of course you should call me Yasuhina-oba-san, or just Yasuhina-san,” the woman told her casting a fond and slightly exasperated look at her daughter.
“What do you mean if! Of course she’s my best friend you know!” Kushina exclaimed before pausing and rounding on Riko asking in a much quieter voice, “You are, aren’t you?”
Riko had always been a sucker for children, and apparently despite being transported to a different world and de-aged into a five-year-old body that hadn’t changed. She couldn’t bring herself to tell her no, especially when she was looking at her so hopefully, it would be like kicking a puppy, so instead she held in a weary sigh of resignation and offered the girl a small smile “Of course Kushina-chan.”
The younger girl beamed and rounded on her mother, “See! I told you, you know!”
“You sure did,” Yasuhina replied amused though her eyes remained locked on the child who she’d pulled from the midst of a bloody battlefield not too long ago, “Are you joining us for dinner Riko-chan?”
“If it’s not any trouble,” Riko told her hesitantly. She knew Kushina wouldn’t have had time to ask her mother before inviting her over, and despite Yasuhina saving her from the battlefield she was essentially a stranger her daughter had randomly invited into their home without so much as a by-your-leave.
“Of course not! I told you, you’re my best friend, it’s never any trouble,” Kushina insisted, a stubborn pout on her lips, “Besides even if it was I already said you could have dinner with us.”
Yasuhina watched as Riko nodded mutely looking a little overwhelmed by Kushina’s zealous attitude toward this friend thing. She hid a smile of amusement, she was sure if Riko hung around Kushina long enough she’d get over that, and hopefully her stubborn daughter would be able to drag the poor girl out of her depression and isolation.
When she’d found the little girl on the battlefield she’d been shocked, because a child should never have been near that kind of intense fighting, especially not a child as young as little Riko. She would never forget those eyes when the child had first looked up at her, covered in blood and looking to be in extreme pain. Seeing the haunted, pained look in those eyes, which looked so much older than they should had broken her heart and haunted her dreams.
She knew without a doubt that the little girl had been torn apart, stripped of her innocence in the bloody tides of war, and she grieved for that loss, still apparently little Riko-chan was a fighter, and a survivor to live after a battle like that you’d have to be, and while she’d heard rumors of the outsider girl she’d brought in walking around like some kind of ghost, silent and with dead eyes this little girl seemed to be doing a bit better than that.
Oh she didn’t look or act like a normal child her age, but Yasuhina doubted she ever would with the kind of trauma she’d had to live through. Her eyes still looked a bit lifeless, but there was a spark there that hadn’t been the last time she’d seen the girl, and she hoped that Kushina would be able to keep that spark going with her youthful exuberance and joy.
Normally she’d be wary about letting an outsider around her only child, but there was something about Riko-chan, despite all she’d been through, that made her want to trust the little girl meant no harm, which is why she’d vouched for her to be able to live in Uzushiogakure.
Still she kept an eye on the girl as they ate dinner together, and was pleased by what she saw. Riko was in no way the hyperactive stereotypical child like her own Kushina, in fact in many ways she seemed much older listening to Kushina chatter on with the indulgent air of an older sibling.
The girl was very quiet, but when she did speak it was with quiet confidence, and it was always thoughtful. She approved of Riko interacting with her daughter and she’d be sure to let the clan know so they wouldn’t try to interfere. She hummed thoughtfully to herself wondering what the future would have in store for the two.
“What do you mean you don’t think you’re going to the academy?” Kushina’s loud voice interrupted her thoughts and she paused in washing the dishes, glancing back at the two who were still at the table talking, or Kushina had been talking and Riko had been listening.
“I’m an outsider Kushina-chan,” Riko told her daughter reasonably, “I don’t think I’m allowed to become an Uzushiogakure ninja.”
“Of course you are!” Kushina protested adamantly, “Tell her kaa-san! She can be a ninja with me if she wants to.”
“You would need someone to nominate you Riko-san, but yes you could go to the ninja academy with Kushina if you’d like,” Yasuhina said slowly, “Do you want to go?”
“She does!” Kushina put in loudly, “Why wouldn’t she?”
“Kushina-chan I asked Riko-chan not you, and I’d like to hear her speak for herself,” Yasuhina scolded gently turning to the other girl who was frowning slightly, “Well Riko-chan? Do you want to go? Don’t feel pressured just because Kushina-chan wants you to.”
“I’m not sure,” Riko offered after a moment’s contemplation.
“Why not? I mean ninjas get to do all sorts of cool stuff, they protect the village, rescue princesses and learn cool jutsu and kick butt you know!” Kushina told her excitedly, totally sold on the idea of her best friend coming to the academy with her.
“That’s true, but ninjas also kill people, risk their lives, hurt others, by destroying families and stealing their livelihoods. I’m not sure if that’s what I want to do,” Riko pointed out reasonably.
Yasuhina winced internally. Riko had a good point of course, they did all that and more, and considering where she’d found the girl no doubt she didn’t have the best opinion of ninja in general, and a much more realistic outlook than her daughter who was sheltered in most ways. Unlike Riko she didn’t associate ninja with murder or the potential loss of her own life.
Kushina went quiet for a moment, worrying both Riko and her mother as she thought about what the other girl said, and finally she nodded, “You’re right, ninja do that stuff too, but they always have a good reason right? To protect the village, the civilians, the children, and our families that’s what it means to be a ninja, that’s what ojiisan told me. That’s what I want to do, to protect the people who are precious to me like you and kaa-san.”
Yasuhina smiled, feeling rather proud of her daughter for that response, but also a little sad. Kushina had the right idea, and hopefully that wouldn’t get taken away from her as she got older and eventually inevitably lost some of those people and fought. She hoped her daughter would keep it in mind when she found the ninja’s life wasn’t a glorious one, but filled with nothing but hard work, blood, sweat, tears and loss. It was a murky road filled with danger and fear, where survival was never a guarantee, and dying before reaching adulthood was all too common.
Riko looked thoughtful as she pondered what Kushina had said and after a long moment she sighed and nodded looking both resigned and determined, “Alright then, I would like to go to the academy with Kushina-chan. I’ll be there to watch her back.”
Yasuhina was a bit surprised by that stance, but also pleased and so she offered the child a smile even as Kushina squealed with joy launching herself at the other girl and hugging her tightly much to Riko’s obvious bewilderment.
“Very well Riko-chan, I’ll sponsor you for the academy, but you must promise me to give it your very best,” Yasuhina told her gently.
Riko nodded solemnly, “I promise Yasuhina-san.”
…~oO*Oo~…
Riko fought the urge to bang her head on the desk and wondered why exactly she had signed up for this again. Ninja academy it might be, but the class for six year olds was mind numbingly boring. Oh it probably would’ve been alright if she had actually been six and not a thirty-three year old woman stuck in a six year olds body, then it was simply hell on earth. She already knew this stuff, and the things she didn’t know she would much rather have learned from books, books at least wouldn’t condescend to her and would actually be more comprehensive for someone like her who was far beyond understanding just the basics.
Luckily it was time for the instructor to dismiss them for the day, she slumped in her chair in relief before gathering her things.
“Come on Riko-chan, kaa-san is home again today and you know what that means!” Kushina prompted impatiently.
Surprisingly this was actually good motivation for Riko to finish packing and the two hurried out of the academy together eager to get to Kushina’s home to see Yasuhina.
Since their first meeting Riko had become somewhat of a fixture at Kushina’s home, to the point where on the day that she’d been set to officially start the academy Yasuhina had cleared out a room for her and the three of them had moved all her things out of the orphanage and into their home.
Riko found that she adored both Yasuhina and Kushina. Kushina was a mischievous bundle of energy and fun, who always had grand plans and ideas. Unfortunately these plans were often not well planned out and often landed Kushina in trouble, luckily Riko had quickly gotten dragging Kushina out of trouble down to an art, which made the other girl adore her just that much more.
Kushina taught her to have fun again, and even managed to get her engaged in the childish games once in a while that she’d never had the opportunity to in her last life mostly because Dudley would’ve beaten the tar out of her if she’d ever tried to participate in games, and would happily bully any child that had tried to play with her.
The two of them had even taken to pranking, with Kushina happy to draw out Riko’s marauder blood as they played amusing tricks on their fellow students and the instructors who annoyed Kushina by trying to treat her like a princess when all she wanted was to be treated like everyone else. Riko could definitely sympathize which is why she helped out, and made sure the blame could never be pinned on her.
Yasuhina was an adult, who didn’t treat her like a child, despite her being in a child’s body, and she greatly appreciated it. Without that outlet of adult communication Riko was sure she would’ve lost her mind, much as she loved Kushina the other girl simply wasn’t on her level yet. She’d get there, but for now she tended to treat the younger girl like a little sister more than an equal, luckily Kushina didn’t mind that one bit and had given her the teasing title of Aneki.
Still it was to Yasuhina she went with her concerns and the older woman always had time to chat with her for a while over what was troubling her, despite needing to keep in shape and run missions for the village. It was also Yasuhina who convinced her that her decision to be a ninja was the correct one despite her original misgivings.
Yasuhina gave it to her straight, not bothering to hide the dirty details from her of what could and would be expected of her as a kunoichi. In some ways becoming a ninja fit right in with what she’d been doing all her life, fighting and surviving. At this point she wasn’t really sure she knew how to do anything else.
Luckily she had outgrown her brash Gryffindor tendencies and embraced the Slytherin in her that the sorting hat had seen all those years ago, or the world of ninjas would probably have eaten her alive. As it was she was sure she would grow and would likely even thrive in the life of a ninja.
Yasuhina had also taken her under her wings in more than just sponsoring her into the academy and letting her move in with them. She also trained her right alongside Kushina in taijutsu and had even unlocked her chakra for both of them.
Riko suspected she’d shocked the woman when she hadn’t complained their first taijutsu practice, which had begun with the Jōnin kunoichi rolling the two of them out of bed an hour before the sun rose. They then had gone for a jog, with Kushina rubbing the sleep out of her eyes as they went, until after the sun reached the horizon. After that came an hour of basic conditioning, which is when they did strengthening exercises and learned basic katas followed by cool down stretches. They then had an hour to get ready before heading off to the academy for the day.
Really it wasn’t actually that bad, not nearly as bad as Oliver Wood’s quidditch practices because Yasuhina didn’t try to talk her to death at ungodly hours, nor did she push as hard yet, probably because of their age.
When Yasuhina was away on missions and couldn’t do the morning workout with the girls it had quickly fallen to Riko to get Kushina up and moving. Kushina had complained to her kaa-san that Riko was an even worse task master than Yasuhina herself and some of the ways she woke the younger girl were cruel and unusual, much to said woman’s amusement.
Technically that wasn’t true, Riko never pushed Kushina to do more than what Yasuhina currently required of them, but Riko tended to push herself even harder when Yasuhina wasn’t around, pushing herself to do stretches and exercises she’d learned in her old world, which was quite a bit more than she’d thought thanks to gym class in primary school combined with extreme exercises Oliver had tried to do with the quidditch team even if many of them had failed to catch on, and the yoga she’d learned later in life to try to aid her meditation and Occlumency practice.
Kushina, seeing these exercises had refused to be left behind, and had insisted on being included, much to Riko’s amusement, though it did endear the other redhead to her even further.
Yasuhina had been impressed with her, and commented not many could keep up with a natural Uzumaki like Kushina, mostly because they were born with quite a bit more chakra than the average ninja, and Kushina was even more special as she had a very special chakra which would later lead to a kekkei genkai that involved creating unbreakable chains with the power to even subdue a tailed beast with her chakra alone.
It had troubled Yasuhina a bit when she’d spoken of Kushina’s special chakra, and when Riko had picked up on that and asked about it the other woman had told her that it was rare for even an Uzumaki to be born with chakra like Kushina’s which made her very valuable and a very tempting kidnapping target. Riko had accepted that and resolved to get even stronger, because Kushina had become quite precious to her and she wasn’t about to let the younger girl be taken against her will and used as a baby factory for some ambitious country like Kumo, Kiri, or Iwa.
Still her gut told her there was more to it worrying Yasuhina than just that, and with what she’d taken to calling her phoenix based intuition she knew better than to ignore her instincts. Still she also didn’t think Yasuhina would confide in her, no matter how much the woman liked her, as she was technically to her just a six year old, a child and no matter how much the woman liked her, still an outsider to Uzushiogakure.
Riko got to see some of Kushina’s special chakra for herself when Yasuhina had the lesson to unlock their chakra. Unlocking chakra was basically just an adult with open coils gently inserting their own chakra into that of the child’s and probing it to respond so that the child could recognize the feel of their own chakra.
Technically Kushina had already had her chakra unlocked, but still had allowed her mother to use her as a demonstration for Riko. If she had a word to describe the feel of Kushina’s chakra it would be dense, maybe heavy. When her chakra had responded to Yasuhina’s probe it had filled the air around them. However despite the heavy feel of it, it wasn’t at all suffocating, it was instead familiar and almost comforting, like a warm blanket being dropped over her shoulders, or like the friendly arm Kushina sometimes slung around her neck in order to drag her around.
When she’d commented on this to Yasuhina the other woman hadn’t been surprised, and simply smiled at the two of them, explaining it was because the two of them had a good relationship, a strong bond and Kushina had nothing but positive emotions for her. If she had not known Kushina her chakra wouldn’t have given her any feelings at all, and if Kushina hadn’t liked her she would’ve felt that too. Manipulated in the right way chakra could make another feel all your hatred, which is what killing intent was. Eventually if you got good enough at it, even if you didn’t hate your opponent you could still wield Killing intent against them by using any feelings of hatred in general and directing them towards the other person, but that was still a ways off for them.
When it came time to unlock her own chakra Riko had been a little nervous. She knew it was there, because Fawkes had told her it was, but what worried her was how it would compare to other ninja. She’d been one of the most powerful magic users alive in her other world, but would that translate over? She had already vowed to keep Kushina safe if she could and with her troublemaker personality, that reminded her a lot of herself, Riko was sure she’d need all the advantages she could get.
She had been able to feel Yasuhina’s chakra as it moved through her body and gently tapped something right around her navel. Immediately warmth flooded through her, the same way it had when she picked up her wand for the first time. She closed her eyes savoring the feeling, learning her chakra, following its flow with her minds eye as it moved through her body.
When the feeling had slowly begun to recede a bit she’d opened her eyes to see both Kushina and Yasuhina gawking at her. Concerned she glanced down at herself to see her entire body was wreathed in dancing bluebell flames that were slowly receding back into her body
Yasuhina had been baffled, explaining to the girls she’d never seen anything like it before, after all chakra didn’t usually manifest itself so that you could physically see it in its raw form like that. She had then pressed upon the girls the need to keep this secret, as it may mean Riko had some rare form of Kekkei genkai that she’d never heard of before.
She’d made both of them promise never to speak of it outside their home, because if others found out Riko could be in danger. The manifestation of a new kekkei genkai was extremely rare, even rarer than Kushina’s special chakra, and so of course if people found out about it the same people who would try to kidnap Kushina would be just as eager, if not more so, to kidnap her.
That was rather unfortunate, and both girls solemnly vowed to keep it secret. Yasuhina wasn’t even planning on telling her father, the Uzukage unless more symptoms of a kekkei genkai manifested. However she did prompt Riko to tell her if she noticed anything unusual happening to her that didn’t happen to other students at the academy.
She’d then spent the next half hour or so asking Riko about where she’d come from, and who her parents were, but Riko didn’t deviate at all, confirming her parents weren’t ninja and that she hadn’t belonged to a clan.
Admittedly they had been a witch and wizard, but Riko wasn’t about to tell Yasuhina that, plus she got the feeling that if she did have some kind of Kekkei genkai it wasn’t from her parents, it was from Fawkes, one of his gifts that had been imprinted on her when he gave his life.
The subject had been dropped then, other than Yasuhina marveling that she had almost as much chakra as Kushina did, which apparently by normal ninja standards, especially kunoichi standards as they tended to have smaller chakra pools and better control, was absolutely extraordinary.
After that lesson Yasuhina had begun devoting their time after the academy until dinner to working with their chakra, doing things like learning to float leaves on their foreheads, which was an exercise in frustration for the both of them as they kept shooting the leaf off with the force of a bullet shot from a gun whenever they touched it with their chakra, and sometimes it even exploded, which was rather amusing the first few times until it simply got frustrating for the both of them.
Yasuhina encouraged them to be patient, as this exercise was a lot harder for them than other children due to their larger than average chakra stores, and to just keep working at it.
After dinner was Kushina’s favorite part of the day and the most frustrating part for Riko, because while the other things came to her fairly naturally the sealing lessons they had after dinner were always a struggle. The concepts just seemed completely backwards to her, whereas to Kushina they seemed almost instinctive.
Privately Riko wondered if that might not be because of her background in ancient runes from her last life because while she hadn’t taken it in school, she had later studied it on her own, and had found to her delight that it came almost as easily to her as defense against the dark arts had.
She’d found runes fascinating, and had spent many a night learning advanced things like warding and enchantments from Bill Weasley before he died. It was no wonder Ron had always been jealous of Bill, the man had been a veritable genius with Runes, which explained how he managed to snag a job at Gringotts despite being a human instead of goblin.
Still she did her best to muddle through the seals, but she got the feeling she’d never be a master in them the way she thought Kushina probably would be. That was fine though, as she was sure she’d find things that she was better at than her friend. Already she was pushing a bit ahead of her in taijutsu, and of course in bookwork, though that was more because Kushina had a hard time sitting still in the classroom.
On days when Yasuhina wasn’t home they weren’t allowed to work on chakra exercises or fūinjutsu as it was too dangerous without supervision. Instead in the afternoons they did more physical exercise after the academy but focused on different things like kunai, shuriken, and senbon throwing.
This was another area where Riko didn’t particularly excel, and neither did Kushina, though their areas of weakness were different. Riko was actually fairly good with a kunai, both throwing it and fighting with it, having had some experience wielding a dagger back in her other life. However senbon were a struggle for her and shuriken even more so, generally leaving her with small cuts on her hands every time she attempted to use them until Kushina had kindly procured a pair of gloves for her to offer some protection. Still her accuracy was only average with the senbon and worse than average with shuriken.
Kushina for her part couldn’t throw a kunai to save her life. She could fight with it fine, but when it came to actually throwing it she couldn’t seem to hit the target. Still she was much better with shuriken and senbon than Riko was, above average in both.
Yasuhina had also put Riko in charge of meals when she was gone. It turned out that before she’d moved in whenever she had to leave Kushina would be left to go to one of the restaurants for food because her mother didn’t trust her not to burn the house down if she tried to cook.
This was slightly understandable considering Kushina was only six years old and really shouldn’t have had to cook for herself anyway. However Riko had the feeling that unless something drastic happened Kushina would forever remain a disaster in the kitchen because even when Riko was watching over her shoulder if she turned her back for even a second something would go terribly wrong.
In one memorable evening Kushina had managed to use sugar instead of salt in the rice balls she’d been trying to make. When those were thrown away, she’d gone to heat left overs in the microwave only for Kushina to accidently forget to remove the tinfoil, needless to say the microwave and the leftovers were toast, deciding to just eat salad she’d managed to get the dressing on, turned her back for two seconds and turned back around to find the salads on fire. It turned out the oil based dressing had caught a spark when Kushina had been messing around with the flint lighter that Yasuhina used to light candles because she was bored. Needless to say they went out to eat that night and Kushina was never allowed to help in the kitchen ever again.
It was a good thing Riko had a lot of experience cooking in her other life and that she didn’t mind doing it, because not only was Kushina a disaster in the kitchen she was also an extremely picky eater. The only thing she’d always eat without complaint was ramen, which made Riko despair over the amount of sodium the little girl was consuming.
Determined not to let her eat unhealthy food all the time she’d dug out what she could remember in dishes from her old world and sought to recreate them here. It had been a little difficult because some of the common ingredients were nowhere to be found, and so experiments had to be done, but in the end she did manage to make several things that Kushina had declared “almost as good as ramen” which was good enough, and meant the stubborn redhead would relent and eat something else from time to time.
In the evenings when it was just the two of them Kushina almost always asked for a story of some kind. The first time she’d done it they’d both been relaxing, reading some books from the academy until Kushina had put hers down with a frustrated groan and complained of boredom demanding Riko tell her something interesting.
Riko had been at a bit of a loss, having never really had to tell stories before in her life. However she hadn’t been able to resist the devastating pout and puppy eyes Kushina had turned on her, and so she went with the first thing she thought of, the story of getting her first Hogwarts letter, though she didn’t tell Kushina the heroine was actually her.
Kushina had been fascinated by the tale, and had desperately wanted to hear more of it, but Riko had cut them off because it was time for bed. Kushina had only allowed it after extracting a promise that every time Yasuhina was gone Riko would tell her more of the story.
Riko had agreed, because she’d started feeling guilty about keeping her past life away from Kushina and Yasuhina, because both had shown her a lot of trust. She still didn’t feel comfortable telling Yasuhina, and she certainly wasn’t going to tell Kushina the stories were true any time soon, but in case she ever did decide to tell the other girl, at least she could know most of it, though she would probably wait for some of the darker parts of the story until Kushina got a bit older, as they weren’t really appropriate for a six year old.
Still there would be no stories tonight as Yasuhina was home, which meant they’d all spend time together as a family, and hadn’t that been quite the shock at first, because despite the Weasley’s attempts to make themselves her family before the remainder had stabbed her in the back, they’d never really included her in things like normal family time.
At first Riko had tried to give the mother and daughter time alone when Yasuhina came back from missions because she knew how much Kushina cherished time with her mother, but if she left for more than five minutes or tried to excuse herself Kushina generally found a reason for her to stay, and if she couldn’t then Yasuhina did.
The two of them were some of the most selfless people Riko had ever met, and somehow they’d wormed their way into her heart and helped to heal some of the hole left from loosing all her family when she was very young.
When she realized what was happening Riko had tried to fight it, experience had taught her that getting close to people only led to pain when they left her behind either in death or in betrayal, but she couldn’t help herself, whether it was because the two of them together were offering the family she’d always wanted, stubbornly pulling her in or because she couldn’t stand the loneliness of being by herself, it didn’t matter. In the end she bowed to the inevitable, and accepted that somehow she was part of the family too.
With their acceptance came the acceptance of the village as a whole. They no longer threw her dirty looks or looked at her with suspicion because she hadn’t actually been born in the village. This was in part because Kushina had eventually noticed any and all hostility directed at her best friend and had responded with a rather violent outburst and then a rash of pranks all directed at people she caught badmouthing her friend. She’d tried to convince Kushina that it wasn’t necessary, that she understood and didn’t mind their suspicion of her, but the stubborn Uzumaki wouldn’t hear a word of it. She’d gotten quite a lecture from the riled little girl about how no one was allowed to pick on her precious people. Riko was amused and admittedly touched at the younger redhead’s protective attitude, and she wasn’t the only one.
Yasuhina was also a bit overly protective, glaring at anyone who said anything against her in their hearing, and verbally ripping to pieces anyone who dared to try to say something to her face. Once she’d even walked out of a restaurant in the middle of their dinner when the proprietor said something in their hearing, swearing up and down that if they were going to insult her family then the restaurant would never see her business there ever again, despite it being one of her favorite places to eat.
“Come on hurry up, hurry up!” Kushina urged impatiently, dragging Riko from her thoughts as she bounced from foot to foot anxious to get home, much to Riko’s amusement.
Ducking her head to hide a smile she picked up the pace, matching time with Kushina, moving faster and faster until the two of them were flat out sprinting through the village in their eagerness to get home, racing one another through the streets, neither noticing or caring about the annoyed and sometimes fondly amused looks that followed the two of them as Kushina let out an excited whoop of joy as she pulled ahead of her friend and came to a screeching stop in front of their home, the winner for the day.
Laughing she pulled her friend inside where Yasuhina waited in the kitchen a half amused half exasperated look on her face welcoming the two of them home.