Chapter 10
The sun shone with a orange hue across the sky above the village hidden in the leaves.
The villagers were wandering along the streets. Shinobi jumping with a slow pace across the rooftops. And a certain red-head standing on one of the heads of the previous hokage, more specifically, the one depicting the fourth hokage, Minato Namikaze.
She was a girl of eleven years of age, and had a height of 1.4 meters. She had a slim build, red hair and a mask hiding the lower part of her face. She wore a pair of long black pants, black sandals and her usual red hoodie.
This was Naomi Uzumaki Namikaze.
She had recently turned eleven years of age and would soon start the final year of the academy. She had long thought about what she would do after graduation. How would she tackle the shinobi lifestyle? How would she make sure her brother would stay alive? Just how, everything.
And she came up with a solution.
It did however, require her to reveal herself. She didnt like it, but what other choice did she have? She had taken a long breath followed by what might have been the largest sigh in both her lives.
- Flashback, a year ago.
A ten year old Naomi sat at her desk in her personal library, biting her nails in frustration at the almost impossible choice she had to take. Should she reveal her existence or not?
She had tried to think of anything else she could do to avoid that scenario, but no matter what she thought of, she couldnt for the life of her find a different solution, so she had to bite the bullet.
She pulled out a blank scroll and started to write a letter. She included a small storage seal at the end where she sealed some documents before closing the scroll. She sighed once again.
"I hope this is the right thing to do....." She said to no one in particular.
She bit her thumb and went through the hand signs for the summong jutsu. From the smoke appeared a small white tiger, the size of Ice when they first met.
"Naomi sama!!" Exclaimed the tiger as she jumped into the girls arms.
"Cloud! I missed you!" Naomi said as she cuddled with the tiger.
Cloud was the second daughter of Catarina as well as the younger sister of Ice, her personal summon who spent most of the time learning the clans ways. Due to Ice having to train, Naomi became pretty close with Cloud, spending a lot of time just lazing around and petting her.
Naomi had to stop herself before she kept going on, and adapted a somewhat nervous and serious expression, which Cloud quickly picked up on.
"Cloud, Im sorry to ask if youre willing to do something for me. Its pretty important." Naomi said in an apologetic voice. Cloud just looked at the girl and gave what could only be the tigers way of smiling.
"Of course Naomi sama. What do you need?" Cloud asked.
"I have a scroll that needs to be delivered to the hokage, and only him. Would you be willing to do that for me?"
"Of course Naomi sama. You can count on me." The feline said in an all to serious, but still childish voice, making Naomi smile at the summon.
"The thing is that I dont want to tell him my real name, so if you could make sure that the hokage, and only him, read the scroll, I would be grateful. If he asks to meet me, could you use the name Yami instead?" The girl told her summon.
"You got it boss!" She answered while having a paw to her head, giving a salute. Naomi smiled.
"Thank you Cloud. Just make sure that he reads it alone and stay in case he sends a message back, I would be grateful." She said in a soft tone while strapping the scroll to the tigers back with a leather harness.
"Got it! I will be right back." The summon responded as she ran outside.
- Scene change, hokage tower.
In an office on the top floor of the hokage tower sat an old man in his sixties. He had profound wrinkles on his face and a goatee that had turned grey in the last few years after the death of his successor the fourth hokage. He wore a red yukata underneath a white cloak that was draped across his shoulders as well as a red hat adorning his head with the kanji for fire.
This was Hiruzen Sarutobi, the third hokage.
He had often thought about how different things would have been had he performed the sealing of the nine-tails instead of the young hokage that had succeeded him, but he often came to the conclusion that it would be useless to have those thoughts. The past was the past as one said.
But he had returned to the post as hokage after that night, and had lamented that fact ever since. He was stressed and tired each and every day because of the constant influx of paperwork, the worst enemy of every kage across the elemental nations.
And as he sat, signing these very same documents while smoking his precious pipe, a sound came from the open window behind him. He didnt expect anyone, and didnt recognize, so he quickly turned his chair towards the intruder only to come face to face with a small animal that he soon recognized as a tiger. He was surprised since he didnt know anyone with a tiger summon, so he instead decided to question the feline.
"Well, hello there." (A/N General Kenobi)
"And who might you be?" He asked the tiger. The feline looked upon the old man and spoke.
"Hi there. Im Cloud. Are you that hokage person?" Cloud returned.
"Why, yes I am. What can I help you with? I dont seem to recall knowing anyone with a tiger contract, so I am a bit curious." The man said while keeping a grandfatherly smile and smoking his pipe.
Cloud sighed in relief as she jumped unto the large desk in front of him.
"As I said, my name is Cloud. My summoner asked me to give you a letter and to make sure that it reached you and only you." She said while removing the scroll from her back.
"And who might this person be?" The man asked.
"She told me to keep it secret, but if you asked, to use the name Yami."
`So, a female summoner. Interesting.´ Thought the aged hokage while observing the feline holding a scroll.
"She also said that this message was for your eyes only, so she sent a silencing seal with me to ensure that youre the only one reading it." She told Hiruzen who just nodded and gestured with his hand for the hidden ANBU to leave the room. Cloud looked over at the bookshelves and spoke up.
"What about that one?" She asked and pointed a paw at the corner where the shelves stood.
The hokages eyes sharpened before he threw multiple shuriken at the spot. There was movement as the concealed shinobi revealed themself while avoiding the weapons. The shinobi didnt manage to get far as the ANBU swiftly entered again and took them down. They didnt manage to question them though, since they had apparently hidden a poisonous pill inside their mouth, ensuring they took their life immediatly upon capture.
Hiruzen just sighed as he signed for the ANBU to remove the body and leave the room. Cloud just shook her head and slapped the seal on top of the table, and sent some chakra into it, activating a cirkular barrier containing all sound, smell and sight. She then handed the scroll to the hokage and just sat down while waiting for the man to read what was written.
The hokage took the scroll as he thought about how familiar the silencing seal was. It was, after all, similar to the one created by his former successor. He just shook his head and unfurled the scroll.
- Hello Lord third.
My name for now is Yami. I have hidden myself since I became aware about a sense of self. You see, I was kidnapped upon my birth by your former student Orochimaru. He used my body for some of his bloodline experiments before you found out about his actions, and only escaped four years ago. The reason I went into hiding was because of my parentage. You see, I am the older twin sister of our resident knucklehead, Naruto, making me the daughter of Kushina Uzumaki and Minato Namikaze.
During the chaos of that night I was forgotten, and Orochimaru took that opportunity to whisk me away which is why you hadnt heard of my existence. I found one of my fathers hidden bases and have lived there and trained myself the last few years, waiting for the day to reveal myself. I had hoped that wouldnt be for a few years, but certain things happened to make me do it early.
You see, Orochimaru was somewhat successful in his experiments to artificially implant bloodlines inside other bodies. It was only thanks to my Uzumaki heritage that I survived the experiments. This made me develop a bloodline allowing me to naturally use and manipulate all five elements and fusing them into elemental bloodlines. And yes, that includes wood release.
Luckily he didnt know of the success before leaving, since if he did I would most likely have been taken along with him when he left the village.
Now, for the reason for me to reveal myself now. As you know, Naruto isnt well liked in the village because of his tenant. This scares me a bit since that has also hampered his education as a shinobi, making him more likely to be killed on missions. I have worked to help him a bit by leaving some scrolls and money for him, but Im afraid that the teachers, except Iruka Umino, have, to put it lightly, sabotaged him to much.
Therefore I am writing to you so that I would be able to keep him alive further down the line. I am aware of the assignment of teams after graduation, but I would like to make the request that I be put as a solo genin at that time. This is for both of us. Him, so that I better can keep my brother alive, and me, since having a sensei and team would simply limit my training.
I ask you to keep this information secret until I am ready to reveal myself. - Yami.
P.S. At the end of this letter is a storage seal that contains proof of my existence. I have removed my name and some of the more gruesome details of the eperiments conducted. -
The old hokage seemed to age a few years at the contents of the letter, but hurriedly unsealed the documents from the seals.
Reading through them, there was no doubt, there was a second child of the fourth hokage alive in his village that he didnt know even existed. He just sighed as he dragged his hand down his face.
"Im too old for this shit..."