( Mito POV )
Mito ignored the sweat dripping down her face, the feeling of her heart pumping faster than usual and the slight ache in her muscles.
All her focus was on the punching bag in front of her, swinging back and forth as she continued to nail it with rapid strikes, the young girl trying to keep her breathing under control as she went through her training.
She could also hear Erza on the other side of the indoor training room, the sound of the spear in her hands cutting through the air over and over again. As she meticulously went through the different fighting forms that their mother had taught her when she was tutoring her in the art of Kenjutsu.
This was how Mito kept her mind off of all the other things going on in her life, a way to clear her mind so to speak.
She knew Erza too had a similar method, though instead of a punching bag she would practice with her many different weapons over and over again until the muscle memory was firmly fixed into her body and mind.
She also knew that they were both trying to distract themselves from thinking about the same thing, their brother Naruto.
Mito could still fondly remember their brother when they were much younger, she could remember him coming to their room in the middle of the night and asking to stay with them because he had just had a nightmare.
But that had been years ago, and it was the fact that it seemed so long ago that now gave those once happy memories a depressing aftertaste.
Naruto had always been so small and fragile; he was more like a little brother then one who was the same age as them.
When their mother and father had started training them both, Mito and Erza had been so excited, so much so that they didn't even notice how Naruto had been left out, at least not until a few weeks later.
By the time they did Naruto was already different, he didn't smile as much or ask for help, he also seemed more reclusive flinching away from any attempts to make physical contact with him.
But sometimes Mito had seen how he had looked at them, a hurt look on his face on more than one occasion, and every time she had seen it, it had always felt like a knife in her chest.
But after the party things seemed to have changed for the better, as while he had still seemed sad Naruto had once again started smiling.
He had even started coming outside to watch them train and had actually started talking to them again, making a real effort to communicate with the rest of the family.
It wasn't the same as before they started training, but it was better than they had been for a long time, it almost seemed as if their family were once again on track to being happy and whole.
It was also a lie.
Mito could see it and she was sure Erza could to; the looks Naruto would send them when he thought no one was looking. The almost invisible way he was forcing smiles that just didn't reach his eyes, the tensing of his shoulders when they made physical contact.
She had asked her mother about it, but Kushina had just said she would take care of it and that there was nothing to worry about.
But that just didn't seem right to Mito, why did Naruto have to be left out while they got to go to the Academy, now that they were ten they would be going full time to the Shinobi Academy for the next three years. Naruto though wasn't going to be joining them, why did he have to adjust in the first place?
Mito let out a loud grunt as she went into a flurry of punches, putting even more power into her strikes than she was before.
Unfortunately though she couldn't keep it up for long, and within five minutes Mito was forced to stop as she leaned forward and panted, drawing in great lungfuls of air as sweat began to drip down her face.
When she got her breath back Mito glared at the punching bag as if it had done something to personally offend her, before giving it one more hit before she turned to see Erza in a similar state to her, with the spear her sister had been training with lying on the floor at her feet.
"Erza…we have to do something, this isn't right." Mito said still trying to catch her breath as she made eye contact with her sister.
Letting out a sigh Erza frowned slightly and gave a nod, before tiredly picking up the spear she had been using and returning it to its place on the wall.
"I know Mito, but what can we do. Mum and dad are right, Naruto is just too…delicate, and Shinobi training is pretty brutal, it might actually kill him!" She replied her tone firm as she echoed the words she had heard spoken between their parents when they discussing precisely this thing.
"We don't know that, maybe he could learn Genjutsu?" Mito said uncertainly as she tried to think of less intensive forms of Shinobi arts her brother could practice.
Erza seemed to think over this suggestion for a moment, before she shook her head with a frown.
"He'd need to unlock his chakra, and even that is risky with his body so weak."
Mito let out a small growl of frustration, hating it when Erza used logic against her like that.
But before she could think of another argument Kushina poked her head into the room and smiled at them, the smell of dinner drifting in through the now open door.
"Hey girls, dinner is almost ready. Have you seen your brother?" The older redhead asked, a smile on her face as she looked at the tired forms of her two daughters.
Erza spoke before Mito, drawing their mother's attention.
"He went to take a nap not long after you and dad left for that Council meeting."
Kushina just gave them another smile and left, but not before asking them to set the table for dinner, earning herself a groan from her two tired daughters as she left the room and went to wake up Naruto.
...
' Kushina '
Kushina frowned when she opened the door to Naruto's room and found the window wide open, with there being no sign of her son in sight.
Quickly closing the window Kushina gave another quick glance around the room before deciding to look somewhere else, closing the door behind her as she did so.
She went to the library but quickly saw no one had been inside since they had left for the council meeting, she then checked the girl's rooms but there was still no sign of him. Frowning Kushina gave up looking and decided to do it the easy way, forming a Hand Sign and using her Uzumaki inherited Sensory Ability to scan the house for Naruto's chakra signature.
Knowing that even with his chakra locked she would be able to sense him, as while even not active all living things had at least a tiny amount of chakra, meaning she would be able to feel Naruto's chakra no matter where he was in the house.
At least she should have been able to, but after checking twice Kushina could still not feel anything within the house that could be Naruto. Starting to get worried, Kushina broke the Hand Sign and quickly made her way downstairs and into the living room, just as the girls finished setting the table for dinner.
"Hey Erza, are you sure Naruto didn't go out? Maybe to the Nara Clan Compound to visit his friend Shikamaru?" She asked a worried look on her face as she tried to think of where her son could have gotten too.
Her words got both girls attention, but their confused expressions only caused her worry to grow. Erza finally answered just as Minato walked into the room, a large family sized bowl of ramen in his hands with a ladle sticking out the top.
"No he defiantly said he was going to take a nap, right Mito?" She said lookin got her sister for confirmation.
"Yeah." Mito said a frown beginning to form on her own face.
Kushina's hands had started to shake and her skin began to pale, signs that Minato quickly recognised as he put the ramen down and moved to stand by her side.
"Kushina what's wrong? Where is Naruto?"
Kushina started to feel dizzy; her mouth becoming unbelievably dry as she somehow choked her next words out.
"I…I don't know…"
...
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