' Kushina '
...
For a moment Kushina could do nothing but stand frozen as her precious son Naruto ran out of the room. As she watched him leave, tears trailing down his face, she didn't know what she was supposed to do.
For the last few years Jiraiya had been warning them about not being straight with Naruto, quite firm in the belief that giving him false hope was many times crueler then just being honest with him. But how were you supposed to tell your child that they would never be able to live their dream, and that he was through no fault of his own too weak to do what every other member of his family did.
Despite everything that had happened with the Kyuubi, the day the triplets were born had been the best day of her life, it had been the day she had become a mother. Not even that damn Fox getting lose could ruin that, no matter what other people might think.
Unfortunately though her happiness couldn't last long.
It had taken about a week for them to notice something was…wrong, wrong with Naruto. He fed the same if not more than his sisters, yet despite his healthy appetite he didn't seem to gain any weight. His baby fat had been melting away more and more with each passing day, and his cries of discomfort never seemed to stop.
It got so bad that they had to call in the doctors, and when the medical professionals did their tests what they found broke both Minato's and her own hearts. Two years, three if they were lucky. That was how long the doctors had given him to live, and even then that was only with her baby boy living in the hospital with an IV hooked into his tiny arm, the feed constantly trying to give him the nutrients his own body just wasn't able to process.
When he had been in the hospital the both of them had visited him every day, Kushina practically moving into the hospital with the girls for those three years. If not for his duty Minato would have been there with her, but they had made do with him making time to visit at least once a day.
Kushina had watched every day as her baby seemed to wither away more and more, getting thinner and weaker everyday that passed. He had been so small lying in that hospital bed, he had been fragile…like glass.
Yeas those first few years had definitely been a hard.
Then the day came that the doctors told her that despite the all the odds, Naruto had lived passed what the doctors had called his 'danger age'. The worst was behind them and even though he would never be completely healthy, she could actually take him home again for the first time in years.
That should have been the start of something better, they were finally a real family again.
But Mito and Erza needed training, training to help prepare them for dealing with the Fox. Erza had shown straight away that she had the Uzumaki Bloodline one that she Kushina also possessed, Solid Chakra, and over the years Erza had demonstrated an understanding and a skill in it that Kushina herself had never had.
Kushina could use it to make her chains with a blade on the end, and had even learned how to use them to suppress the chakra of anyone or anything she had caught in them. But Erza had taken the skill one step further, her little girl seemed to be able to make almost anything with them, including actual armour of all things.
Then there was little Mito her other daughter who while born without the Uzumaki Bloodline, was slowly turning into a very adapt Sensory Type Shinobi. As where Erza found her passion in Kenjutsu, Mito instead found hers in Fuinjutsu. Like her father she was fascinated by Seals of all kinds, learning them, studying them and taking them apart to see how they worked. That coupled with her growing skill in Taijutsu told Kushina that she would be a very strong Kunoichi one day, in fact both her girls would.
Naruto though… sometimes there were days he couldn't walk down the stairs without getting winded. Just the thought him even holding a kunai terrified her, let alone actually training with one. But when he had seen his sisters training he wanted to join them, Kushina had seen it in his face. Naruto wanted to be a ninja, her sickly little boy…
Both Kushina and Minato knew that if he ever tried to unlock his chakra his weak little body might just break from the strain, let alone try and use it. So they instead tried to buy themselves time, explaining how they couldn't train as instead they needed to focus on getting his sisters ready because of the Fox. They just wanted to wait until he was older and more mature, maybe then he would be able to understand that he just couldn't be a Shinobi.
But Jiraiya was right, even though she was angry enough to kill him at the moment Kushina knew he was right. Keeping on lying to Naruto like this was wrong, so maybe telling him the truth might be kinder in the long run.
He had warned them from day one that to give Naruto false hope wasn't a kindness, and that he did not agree with what they were doing. He had even offered to try and help Naruto unlock his chakra, saying that it might actually help strengthen his body if it didn't kill him. But Kushina didn't want to take the risk, and had put her foot down.
That was why Jiraiya had always kept his distance from Naruto, the man was unwilling to lie to him but at the same time he knew it wasn't his place to go against the both of them, as they were his parents. Kushina also knew that if Naruto had ever asked him, the old pervert would have been more than happy to train him, and so he had tried to distance himself to avoid it.
However none of it changed anything right now, not after seeing her son running out of the room in tears with a heartbroken expression on his face.
Turning a glare on the legendary Shinobi, Kushina waited until she saw him flinch and look away in shame before running after her son. As she left Kushina could hear Minato apologising to the guests, before saying the party was over.
' Naruto '
...
By the time he had reached his room Naruto's tears had given way to numbness, his face falling into an expressionless mask as he sat on his bed. His head was still ringing with Jiraiya's words, echoing over and over again. 'You will never be a ninja, you will never be a ninja, you will never be a ninja.'
But the fact was all it had done was validate everything Naruto had already known, that his family thought he was weak. That they had been lying to him for years, and that they never actually intended to train him like Mito and Erza, never.
Squinting slightly as he felt his eyes burn Naruto shook his head thinking he was going to start crying again, not realising that the pupils in his eyes kept bleeding out before receding again.
Naruto found himself absentmindedly palming the kunai that was still in his pocket, running a finger along the edge and making a mental note that it needed sharpening. He was actually about to take it out when he felt someone's chakra from downstairs brake off from the rest and start up the stairs, the sound of their footsteps soon reaching his ears. If he had more experience Naruto might have been able to tell how it was from chakra alone, but for now all he could do was tell that whoever they were they had a lot of chakra.
He didn't have to wait long however, because a moment later there was a soft knock on the door before it was opened slightly, and the face of his mother could be seen through the opening. Naruto hadn't turned the light on when he had entered, making the light from the hallway cut through the darkness of his room only to end at his feet and leave the rest of his body in shadows.
But while his face was hidden Naruto could clearly see the concerned face of his mother, her eyes somehow finding his own in the dark even though she would be unable to actually see them.
She made no move for the moment to enter his room, standing in the doorway and trying to squint as her hand reached for the light switch. Only to let out a sigh when she did and nothing happened, Naruto having removed the light bulb several days ago.
...
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