.

"Thank you for coming in."

He swept the room with a child's eyes: Two chairs, four walls, one piece of discarded off-pink gum stuck to peeling paint.

"This will take just a minute. Yes, that's your seat. So tell me-" Her ballpoint pen clicked audibly in the hollow room. "How do you like school so far?"

"Good."

He peered across at the clipboard, silently marveling at the rows of small boxes.

"I learn a lot, and have fun with my friends."

Check. The swish of her pen was satisfying, validating, somehow. Their eyes met across the table, and he wondered why she stared at him so unflinchingly, as if he were hiding something from her.

"I see you already have recommendations from your teachers! That's impressive, young man. Do you have any goals? Dreams?"

A shy half-dimple appeared. "To be a great hokage."

"That's an admirable goal. But you'll need to work very hard."

"Yes."

Then he realized: the examiner's face was a blank canvas, carefully pleasant in all the right places. Her voice was melodious and empty. "Well, we have a wonderful village here to help you. I know you'll do great things."

Ah. This was a cue.

So, he smiled, like the sun, like a child, with every bequeathed confidence.

Namikaze Minato did not want to disappoint.

"Thank you. I'll try."


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- Vainglory -

00: Prologue

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"Upon the conduct of each depends the fate of all."

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Alexander the Great

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The boy pushed.

"Didn't you know you weren't invited, Freak?"

"No," she spat, mouth a red smear. "This is my cave spot. Get lost."

"Oh yeah? Make me."

It took mere seconds. His wails for his mother were more honest than his previous words. Quickly, she relented: her wrath had limits, and she hesitated to kick someone already down. It felt like weakness, somehow.

"I'm warning you, 'ttebane." Her fierce eyes rather than her cheap growl coaxed forward the boy's renewed bravado.

"Freak! Your dad will hear about this from mine. He'll shut you back into your room where you belong."

"Find your own cave, then. Whirlpool's big enough for both of us." Her balled fists shook, but something inside quaked even more violently. So she breathed.

One breath.

Two.

"You're a tattle. I beat you fair and square."

"You only got close 'cause your chakra ain't normal! Freak!"

"I have a name."

The tell-tale sound of adult footsteps echoed, harmonizing with the drip-drip of the cave. She tasted her last vestige of freedom, fists still clenched.

"Freak. Tomboy. Weirdo," he chanted, dancing away from her trembling fists.

He'd won, and they both knew it.

She inhaled, before her shout ricocheted hollowly through the cavern walls.

"It's Uzumaki Kushina! Remember the name, 'cause one day, it'll make people pee their pants in fear, 'ttebane!"

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end prologue