Chapter Two: The Village Hidden in the Leaves

"Shizune?"

"Yes, Rei-chan?" Shizune answered, looking up from her map and looking at me curiously. I have been traveling with the two Kunoichi for four days now and I had come to respect them both relatively well - my favorite thing about Shizune by far, however, was that she treated everyone seriously and made sure you were aware that she was paying attention to you when you spoke. Considering I might as well have been invisible, unless I was stealing apparently, to all of the people I've encountered the last year, it was a refreshing change.

"Why is Lady Tsunade getting more surly and irritable the closer we come to arriving?" I asked, gesturing towards the woman I was speaking about who was wobbling a little from the sake she drank and cursing the sun at the same time.

"Lady Tsunade left Konoha for a reason and she is not eager to return." Shizune explained carefully, not really revealing anything.

"Oh, well where will we go after Konoha?" I asked, causing Shizune to get an surprised and uncomfortable look on her face.

"Well… you see, Rei…" Shizune fumbled uncharacteristically, making a twinge of worry curdle in my gut.

"We, as in Shizune and I, will go gamble and get drunk off my ass." Lady Tsunade said harshly, her words partially slurred. "You are going to stay in that god forsaken village."

"WHAT? No way in hell, lady!" I objected, walking forward at a faster pace so that I was beside the blonde woman. "You aren't just going to dump me in a village YOU don't even like - and you like anything with sake and slot machines!"

"I can and I will." Tsunade replied with a firm nod but the effect was lost when she had to stop for a moment because the 'world was spinning'.

"I won't stay." I sneered "There's nothing your drunk ass can do about it. First chance I get, I'm running."

"Rei-chan! Show Lady Tsunade respect, she-" Shizune scolded

"She is a drunk old lady who wants to dump me in some shit village so she can feel better about herself. Most likely so there's one memory she can cling too, one 'good deed', among all the bad ones." I growled, attempting to hurt her with words the same way I felt a little hurt. I thought she was going to let me join them in traveling, like Shizune. "Is that why you keep your brain floating in alcohol? Kill too many kids? Huh?"

Lady Tsunade didn't respond, just watched me through bleary eyes with an indecipherable expression I couldn't place. I could tell she was processing my words as I spoke them because there was a delayed reaction.

WHUMP

My body literally lifted off the ground and flew into a tree, my back hitting the wood and causing me to cry out in pain. I blinked to get rid of the dark spots and distantly heard Shizune calling my name and screaming at Tsunade at the same time. When my vision finally cleared, Shizune was making me lean forward so she could run a diagnostic jutsu but my eyes were focused on Tsunade.

She had used two fingers. Two fingers had made me fly through the air, land on my ass, and almost knocked me out - it was both terrifying and amazing. What the hell was this world? I 'remembered' my old life at the age of two, so I've had four years to consciously adjust and two to subconsciously do so. Being able to do things like that, inflict so much damage without breaking a sweat, it was still shocking and terrifying. How was I ever going to survive if there were people like that, who could crush me like a bug? All I could do was run for a long time and make ice.

Tsunade looked stunned and guilty at having flicked me as hard as she had into a tree. She put away her sake bottle after that and drank water, watching Shizune's every move as the dark-haired kunoichi healed me. Tsunade gave a mumbled apology that I ignored and I just kept my head down the rest of the day, thinking about different training exercises I could try to do in order to get stronger with my ice stuff - ninjutsu, the my two (apparently temporary) traveling companions told me.

Even though we had been together only five days now, we had already settled into a habit for breaking camp. I would gather firewood while Shizune set up the tents and all of the supplied. The first night, Shizune lit the fire but I had her teach me so that now I could do it as well. It was the only time today I smiled for today because I loved being able to do it.

"Why did you get Shizune to teach you how to make fire? Why not have her do it?" Tsunade asked, the first words she spoke to me since her half-assed apology. I was tempted to ignore her but I wanted something from her tomorrow, so I needed to be on her good side.

"I wanted to learn in case we get split up or for when I'm no longer traveling with you two. This way I have a fire." I explained, pausing to blow on the fire so the embers would catch flame. "Future travel companions may know how to do so but I may not always travel with another person. Not to mention, what if everyone I WAS traveling with didn't know how to make a fire because they all relied on someone else to do it for them."

Tsunade hummed to herself, a noncommittal sound that I did not even bother acknowledge it. I cooked us basic noodles for dinner, one of the only meals I could make on the road, and pretty soon I was snuggled into my sleeping bag. I was not necessarily in terrible shape, considering that whenever I stole I'd usually end up running and I have A LOT of stamina. Still, sleep was amazing and my eyes were beginning to flicker shot when my name caught my attention and also chased away the exhaustion for a moment.

"What were you thinking, Lady Tsunade?" Shizune whispered "Using chakra enhanced strength on a six year old girl?"

"I know, Shizune… I don't know why I did that. It was the things she was saying, it was getting to me and with us going to Konoha…" Tsunade muttered, the guilt obviously present in her voice. "I'm dreading going back there and seeing what people have to say. I'm also worried they won't take her and train her."

"What will you do if they won't?" Shizune asked quietly

"I don't know." Tsunade confessed in low tones. "I don't see how they couldn't. She's an Uzumaki, she's smart, and she has a Kekkei Genkai - Ice release is rare and there will be clans tripping over one another trying to get it in their family."

"Stop." Shizune said lowly with a hint of disgust present in her voice. "You're talking like her as if she's cattle - breeding her, training her. That's a little girl with no family."

"I know!" Tsunade exclaimed slightly loud, making them both freeze and I heard clothe shift. My back was turned to them but I was assuming it was the sound of their clothes rustling as they looked to see if the noise woke me up. " Hiruzen-sensei won't let anything bad happen to her and won't promise her to a clan. It will be her choice if she wants to marry, train, all of that - as soon as they know she isn't a spy."

"A spy?" Shizune gasped and my body tensed at the ominous words. Were they going to interrogate me? How will they know I'm not a spy?

"Yes, ever since the Second Shinobi War - well, things still haven't quieted down that much. Everyone is distrustful and everyone is trying to spy so next time they'll have the upperhand." Tsunade explained

"Do you think she's a spy?" Shizune asked hesitatingly, obviously not sure if she wanted to know the answer.

"No, I think she's an orphan with way too much chakra and a special ability that will get her noticed." Tsunade replied, without any hesitation. I felt my lips twitch because Tsunade secretly believed in. "I'm pretty sure that was why she didn't want to admit to the ice release. Still hasn't actually - I think it's what got one or both of her parents killed."

"Poor Rei-chan." Shizune uttered softly, making me want to scoff. There were thousands who had it far worse than I did. At least I was strong enough to roll with the punches. I decided to stop eavesdropping at that point and just go to bed, so I snuffled loudly before rolling over, effectively ending the conversation.

The next conversation was about medical jutsu and the complicated topic quickly lulled me to sleep since I could follow almost nothing she was talking. If Shizune was right, and I had no reason to doubt her, then we would arrive in Konoha tomorrow night one hour after dark. Not exactly the proper time for an auspicious arrival but they wanted to push on. It did give me all day to pester Tsunade into teaching me chakra.

I was attempting to not explode in anger but I could feel myself losing the fight the longer Tsunade laughed. Everything was fine when I woke up this morning, I even made sure to spike Tsunade's morning tea with a bit of sake just the way she likes it. We ate breakfast and I didn't say a word for the first hour of us walking. All the things I had learned Tsunade appreciates, I did this morning in an effort to convince her to teach me something. So, an hour and a half into our trip, I asked her to teach me to walk on water and she has been laughing for two minutes straight ever since.

"Sorry, it's just funny." Tsunade apologize without seeming to mean it, wiping the tears from her eyes as her cackling turned into chuckles.

"I don't see how. Shizune can do it, I saw her two days ago." I said with an annoyed look, gesturing to the dark haired kunoichi.

"Look, I really am sorry. I'll explain." Tsunade said, becoming serious in an effort to appease me. "Water walking is chakra control - you have a long way to go before you're ready for that. I'll teach you a pretty easy exercise first, then we'll see how you do. Take this"

I took the leaf Tsunade had picked up from the ground from her hand with a skeptical look, eyeing the regular green shape and the blonde shinobi in front of me with suspicion. "Now what?"

"You know what it feels like when you gather your chakra to use it?" Tsunade asked, making me think about the most recent time - turning the puddle to ice. It always feels like there is this surge of warmth that shoots through me. It reminds me of a dam breaking and all the water flooding out at once, but unless it's super hard, the dam closes right back up. I told her my analogy and she seemed to consider it.

"So I want you to gather it, just a little, and then try and hold it. Eventually you should be able to feel how it flows all through your body - starting with the point your gathering and flowing all around. Then, stick the leaf to your forehead by making that the focal point of your chakra. Direct all of your chakra to the spot you want the lead to stick to." Tsunade explained, then walked forward to speak with Shizune about possibly stopping at some tea house on the way to Konoha.

It took me an hour to be able to feel my chakra and understand what she meant. Now that I was aware, it seems insane that I had ever not realized it was there - under my skin, flowing through every part of my body. It took finally turning the leaf into ice to be able to feel the surge of chakra and then I 'followed' it as it settled once again in my body in it's natural way. Once I figured out how to channel it, it was child's play to be able to stick the leaf to my forehead and keep it there for five minutes.

We took a quick break for lunch and I convinced Tsunade to show me another exercise - tree walking. I was only able to attempt it twice before we were packing up to continue towards Konoha but I had gotten three steps up the tree, which I felt was nothing to scoff at for my first time and being six years old.

All too soon, the sun began to set and I could see the walls of Konoha, painted by the sun to look like fire, looming ahead of us. When Tsunade and Shizune said village, I imagined Konoha to be only a little bigger than the village we had come from, Kitashiobara, I was very, very wrong in my assumption. The walls were huge structures, safely tucking away the village, and the gates we were approaching had two guards on duty dressed in what I assume is a standard uniform.

"Tsunade-hime?!" One of the guards called out incredulously, his jaw hanging wide open in disbelief and making me look at Tsunade out of the corner of my eye. Princess? Was that alcoholic actually royalty?

"I need to speak with the Hokage." Tsunade declared, her spine perfectly straight and suddenly exuding an air of confidence. She always has a commanding presence, the kind that just draws your attention when that person walks in a room, but this was the disposition of someone who gave orders and knew they would be obeyed. Needless to say, I was viewing her in an entirely new light.

"Yes, Tsunade-hime. Who are your comrades?" One of the guards asked, looking at Shizune and I with interest.

"Shizune is originally from Konoha and Rei is this young lady but anything else about her is confidential until I speak with the Hokage." Tsunade said firmly, placing her hand on my shoulder I was tempted to roll my shoulder to get her hand off but these people seemed to respect Tsunade so much, it seemed like a bad idea.

"Hokage-sama will see you, Tsunade-hime." The guard told us as he appeared in the spot he had vacated.

"Thank you. Come on, Rei, Shizune." Tsunade encourage, steering me to walk slightly behind her and in front of Shizune. I noted the odd positioning but did not dwell on it because I was taking in the sights of the village as we walked towards a huge tower towards the center of town.

Konoha was huge and had so many people inside of it. Everywhere I looked there were people selling merchandise or food, people walking into or out of shops. We passed groups of people who were just talking with one another and even a playground that had a fair amount of children - nothing I have seen in this world reminded me of my old world as much as Konoha. I could not seem to shake this nagging sensation of familiarity, like when someone is barely touching you but it still bothers you for some reason. Thinking back on it, I have had the same feeling ever since I ran into Tsunade - maybe it was just her presence, that she reminded me of someone I was forgetting?

We turned a corner and I stumbled when I saw the mountain. A building had been hiding it before but there was no mistaking Hokage mountain - it was the moments that it hit me. I was never really a fan of Naruto, my brother was, but I enjoyed reading nonfiction books more than manga or watching TV. Of course my brother had forced me to watch Naruto but only the first batch of episodes. I can't believe I didn't make the connection sooner, I was internally berating myself. Ninja? Tsunade? Konoha? Jutsu?

Tsunade put a comforting hand on my shoulder, seeing me pale and eye the mountain with trepidation. She probably thought I was nervous but in reality I was freaking out - how have I not realized this sooner? What the hell am I going to do? I attempted to calm myself down by thinking that this really did not change anything. I was still Rei, still hunted down because of my name, and I was still being led to see the Hokage right now to see if he would accept me into his village. Oh kami, I'm so screwed.

It didn't take long for us to reach the door to his office and Tsunade knocked once before entering, not bothering to wait for permission as she strode into the room.

"Tsunade-hime." Hiruzen greeted, his expression openly curious. "Have you decided to-"

"I'm not coming back." Tsunade interrupted, and fidgeted at the disappointed look on the Hokage's face. This, unfortunately, drew his attention and the man rose an eyebrow at Tsunade after pointedly looking at me.

"And who is this you have brought with you?"

"This is Rei Uzumaki." Tsunade said, stressing my surname.

"Really?" Hiruzen asked rhetorically, eyebrows raised in surprise.

Tsunade then explained exactly how we ran into each other, what I did in front of her, and how we travelled here. She also listed off a bunch of observations about me that I was gobsmacked to realize she had noticed - it really threw me for a loop. The woman was far more observant than I thought she would be.

"Interesting." Hiruzen commented, breathing out a cloud of smoke from his pipe. "Thank you, Tsunade. I would like to speak to the child alone."

Tsunade agreed and left, Shizune throwing me an encouraging look before following, and the door closed with a click. Hiruzen gestured for me to take a seat in one of the chairs in front of his desk and I hesitantly did so. We sat in silence for a moment, with him analyzing me while I looked around his office interestedly. There were only three pictures on the wall so I know that he has not retired and made that other blonde guy Hokage yet, it gave me a better idea of when during 'the story' I was.

"Tell me, Rei-chan, why you would not admit to Tsunade what you did in self defense." Hiruzen prompted. It made me wiggle a little in my seat, the nerves getting to me and my mother's warning in my mind. Hiruzen obviously noticed and prompted me to speak the truth once more. "What you say will not leave this office unless I deem it important and I promise you are safe here as long as you are not an enemy."

"I-I was told not to tell anyone, Hokage-sama." I stuttered, feeling the powerful presence this man had.

"And who asked this of you?" Hiruzen asked

"My mother, Hokage-sama." I said, wondering if I could trust the man sitting in front of me. From what little I remember, he was a benevolent ruler but I was a stranger in his village. I was not one of his people, so would I be treated fairly?

"Do you know why?"

"Yes." I responded, taking a deep breath and deciding to roll the dice. It isn't like I have many options at this point; though I had survived the past year after my mother's death, it was just that - surviving. It was a full time job to steal enough food to survive and clothes to keep warm. I wouldn't make it much longer on my own. "Her name was Mei Yuki. She was from Kirigakure, our family was a clan with a Kekkei Genkei and were all exterminated by Kiri-nin. My mother, to the best of my knowledge, was the only survivor and even though she was not a shinobi, they still hunted us."

"How did she come to escape?" Hiruzen asked with a shrewd look on his face.

"My father, Hiroki Uzumaki, helped us escape the village but died to buy us enough time." I explained, my voice steady despite the tears falling from my eyes. Those were horrible times - the blood, the screams, my father never coming back. Mother and I running for days until we passed out from exhaustion only to continue after resting. "We hid for two years successfully but someone we thought was a friend informed on us to Hunter-nin from Kiri and my mother gave her life so I might escape. I ran for days until I found a village, where I stole clothing and food, and then hid inside a man's trade wagon before being found in the next town where he left me. That is where Tsunade-san found me."

It was quiet except for my sniffling as I tried to stop the tears from falling. I hated crying, it never changed the situation, but I had been strong and alone for so long. I just wanted a little bit of relief. Somewhere where I could not worry about where my next meal is going to come from while I was eating my current one.

"I see." Hiruzen said after a moment, sighing heavily and seeming to age a few years in front of my eyes. "I am sorry that these misfortunes have occurred to you, someone so young. Yet I find myself hesitant to grant you access to the village with how tense relations are with other villages. You could be a spy, a plant, any number of things."

"I understand, Hokage-sama." I said, lowering my head so he couldn't see the fresh water once again welling in my eyes. If I was lucky they would escort me to another village, maybe they would spare a little bit of food?

"You are too young to undergo a mindwalk, an ability one of the clans we have in the village utilize, but I will agree on the condition that you be kept under watch until further notice." My head jerked up at his words, my face hesitantly hopefully. He would really let me in his village, just like that? It seemed too good to be true. Hiruzen smiled at my expression, but quickly suppressed it and turned serious once more. "This is a serious risk I am taking on you and it is not something I do lightly, I hope you understand that. It is only for two reasons that I am allowing it. Can you guess what they are?"

I thought about what would make me special enough to make an exception for and my mind immediately zeroed in on my Kekkei Genkei. "My ice release ability?"

"That is the more obvious reason, yes." Hiruzen conceded, nodding his head at the same time.

I thought hard about the other reason and it took a couple of minutes for it to come to me; well, for a possible reason to come to mind. Tsunade said that she was related to an Uzumaki and that there was a Kushina Uzumaki that lived in Konoha… maybe that was the other reason?

"Is it because I am an Uzumaki?" I asked curiously and felt myself flush slightly when he smiled, nodding his head that I had deduced both reasons.

"Exactly. Konoha has long had an alliance with Uzushiogakure and Uzumaki was one of the most prevalent clans of that village. Currently there is one other Uzumaki in our village and I imagine she would be very glad to meet you." Hiruzen said benevolently "Would you like that, Rei-chan?"

I..I think so, Hokage-sama." I said finally, after thinking it over a moment. I had never met anyone related to me in this life aside from my parents and it would be nice to have that kind of bond with someone again, even if it took a long time to build a connection.

"Good!" Hiruzen said, clapping his hands together and blowing out another cloud of smoke. "Well, I will summon Kushina-san and inform her of your arrival. Can I assume you will be staying for a little while, Tsunade?"

"Only until the brat is settled." Tsunade said grudgingly, rolling her eyes when she noticed the pleased expression on her old sensei's face.

Tsunade led me to some woman who introduced herself as the Hokage's secretary and she had me filling out a lot of paperwork. Tsunade left me to go 'find some sake and a craps table in this dump' to put it in her words, only after assuring me she would find me later. Shizune gave me a quick hug on her way out as she followed after Tsunade, most likely going to attempt to keep her out of trouble - from my experience. Try was the operative word in that sentence. I smiled a little as I filled out the paperwork… something told me life in Konoha was going to be anything but boring.

A/N: Chapter two! Any thoughts? Let me know :))

Playlist: TBD

Much love,

~Rache