Chapter 1: In the Beginning
Chapter Text
At age one, or definitely before she’d turned two, anyway, Atene had the strangest feeling she shouldn’t be hanging out all day and most of the night in a weapon’s forge. She always felt that especially strongly when she was left unsupervised. Fortunately, even at her tender age, Atene was smart enough to know that whether or not the fire called to her, it still might burn her.
“Like great men - and women," her father added with a wink, "the strongest swords are forged by fire."
“But darling,” the scary woman who was her mother added with a strange smirk, “If you wish to bend the world to your will, you will do it with chakra and ink.”
“Ha!” Her father, Haruto, laughed. “Sorry, Mitomi, but I think our daughter was born to swing a sword.”
Mitomi fluttered her eyelashes, her smile beguiling - but Atene noticed the way her eyes had darkened. “We’ll see about that.”
…
Sometime after turning two, Atene was fairly sure something was very wrong with her mother, Mitomi. Thankfully, she only saw the intense woman at night, and not every day. Mitomi and her much-loved favorite blacksmith father, Haruto, would often argue about what Mitomi was asking - no, demanding - Atena master, be it calligraphy, hand seals, jutsu theory, or dance. Atene didn’t mind any of it; she even enjoyed what she was learning; she just didn’t theoretically like how life-or-death each evening’s drills and reviews were pressed onto the shoulders of a tiny girl.
“Ha! If you don't have a hammer, you don't want anything to look like a nail."
"Ehhhh?!" That didn't sound right!
“By hammer and hand all arts do stand."
Her mother’s voice, on the other hand, sounded more like a hiss. “If you wish to seal and live, you must be perfect.”
A weird form of child abuse or not, Atena manned up and took it. There was a war going on after all. It was no wonder her mother was so high-strung.
(Yeah, no.) There was no excuse outside of mental illness for how crazy and desperately intense her mother was. She was terrifying. The things she did with the needles at night... Well, the less said or thought about that, the better.
Then again, the continent on which Atene and her family lived was full of ninjas. Maybe someday she’d grow up and learn to do superhuman things.
Atene scoffed as she looked at herself in the mirror. Even with big doe eyes and long lashes, the short, dark hair (and muscles that did not belong on what she thought civilians might call a “toddler”) made her look like a boy. Maybe she should grow her hair out. As long as she could put it up, the forge’s heat probably wouldn’t get to her too much…
Her mother would love that. “Yech.” Her mother loving long hair was a good enough reason to shave her head bald!
…Still, her mother did have really beautiful hair, and Atene had had quite enough of being mistaken for a boy when she was pulling orders from the warehouse for her dad.
My eyes used to be kinda hazel, she thought out of nowhere again, climbing onto the sink to better look at her eyes, even prying them open a bit. Would they be classified as hazel now? They were brown like her father’s but liberally flecked with an unusual golden honey tone.
Weird. Atene could’ve sworn her hazel eyes were a blue/green. And that her hair was lighter; ginger.
“Gingers got no soul, ya freak!”
“Shut UP!”
“C’mon, ya Weasley! –Try to keep up!”
“Atene-chan,” her father yelled from the supply room, breaking her strange daydreams. She was no weasel; she was not weasley! “Customers!”
Atene scrambled off the counter, hoping she wasn’t in trouble. She quickly washed her hands, grabbing a brush to briefly get under her fingernails while she was at it. Looking up into the mirror one more time, she scoffed. Who cared what color her eyes were anyway? “Coming, Otousan!”
Before her third birthday, Atene began to really worry about the constant sense of deja vu or intermittent “wrongness” that pervaded her life. Once she joked to her father that maybe she used to be someone else - that that’s how she knew the things she did. But he only shrugged, saying everyone reincarnated: citing the Great Wheel of Samsara. After that, Atene decided to go with the flow. It wasn’t as if anyone seemed to think she was progressing too quickly; that she had too much responsibility; that she shouldn’t already understand advanced mathematics or concepts previously unexplained.
And anyway, all of this supposed precognition was probably her mother’s fault. When she was home, the devil Mitomi was always whispering lessons about history and politics into her ear at night (all night) or chanting theorems that sounded like witchcraft while she... Did what she did.
Atene had learned to wake up silently and still; to keep her breathing even while the lessons and seals took hold.
“Atene Miten! –Seals are incredibly powerful but dangerous!"
"You will not defy me! ...You must heed my warnings, child."
Wow, was that her okaa-san? That almost sounded like… concern! “Yes, Mother. I’m listening…”
On the night of her third birthday, Atene’s mother forced her chakra to unlock. Her father, uncles, and great uncles strongly disapproved when they found out, but Atene was… fine, although she felt even weirder than normal. Supposedly, Mitomi’s med-nin cousin said it was fine.
Then again, Mitomi often ranted that her cousin was a drunk and a traitor. --A missing nin.
Why was her mother talking to missing nins? And why did her relatively normal uncles and father seem okay with it? Atene had learned not to ask these things. She’d learned not to ask about a lot of things, not when the “witch” was around.
“Damned sea witch,” Uncle Mura would complain behind Mitomi’s back.
A few days after her third birthday, her mother asked her to begin making seals.
“An explosive note?” Atene asked, beyond hesitant to go along with this. Why had her father chosen to go out drinking with his uncles tonight?! “Mother, I… don’t think Otousan would like that.”
Her mother grabbed her face harshly but wound up stroking her cheeks after a long moment wherein her eyes darted between her daughter’s. For a moment, Atene’s quickened heartbeat stuttered. She feared Mitomi would use her talons to take her eyes or something.
“...He’s not here - and doesn’t matter,” Mitomi hissed as she turned around.
Her gut clenching, Atene licked her dry lips and tried again, trying to shutter her many "unneccessary feelings" away. “You said,” she gulped, “I shouldn’t play around with seals. You said seals are dangerous.” She didn’t want to die or succumb to any of the even worse things her mother had told her seals could do.
“They are dangerous,” Mitomi knew. “And you will be, too.”
Atene knew by the way her mother was fisting her hands; the way her jaw was set, that there was no going back. It’s been a nice life, I guess. She pitched her voice low, sounding a little deranged as her mind conjured a man talking, bending over and working his buttcheeks as if he was talking from his ass. Then the same man was saying something ridiculous with green beans hanging out of his mouth, his hair styled up like the horns of an oni.
Like Dear Mother!
Oddly giddy and sure (or hoping) her mother had used an illusion to shove those bizarre images into her head, Atene copied his speech: “Alllllllllllll-righty, then…”
And an hour later… she did it! Gods help her, maybe she was as nuts as her mother because after making her first destructive, powerful but contained seal, Atene felt proud and determined to do more.
Uncle Mura pushed his big, neon-ish-blue, plastic glasses up his crooked nose. “Chibi-chan!” the old man barked as he stepped into the back. He was always barking and complaining about something. Atene decided it must suck to be old, but she liked him well enough. (Aside from the racism she soundly scolded him for.) He had lots of war and other stories and was supposedly high up in nearby Konoha’s bureaucracy and semi-retired now. “Someone up front’s lookin’ for ya.”
“Oh!”
Atene put down her cross peen to ensure her work would wait for her, ensuring the future tool was secure.
There was only an exhausted-looking blonde shinobi out front, leaning over and resting tiredly against a display case. His blue eyes widened when he noticed her, and he stood, smiling genuinely, despite how much he seemed to be physically dragging.
“Shinobi-san?” Atene asked, glancing around for her father who ran the joint. She climbed up on her stepstool so that she seemed bigger. “You asked for me, sir?” It was just as likely that Uncle Mura wanted to slink off to nap, and this man hadn’t asked for her at all. “Did you need me to pull an order for you?”
“No, no,” the blonde Konoha shinobi assured her. “Or yes and no! …I’m - ah - just here to deliver a belated birthday gift from your auntie.” He pulled out a scroll and waved it through the air, letting the ribbon closing it loose and displaying the inside of the seal in a dramatic flourish. “And of course, there’s a little something from me.”
Auntie? Atene thought. She didn’t have a real aunt; not anymore. Maybe this was from the drunk missing nin who was her mother’s cousin?
Why was everyone okay with that “aunt” (second or third cousin in reality) being an alcoholic, rampaging rogue kunoichi? She turned toward where her great-uncle had let out a loud curse when he banged into something, wondering if Blondie was looking for someone else, and sighing when she heard Mura-ojii assuring everyone he was fine. Unsure of how to ask the familiar-looking Jonin if he might be mistaken, she paused to observe the homemade, multi-compartmentalized storage scroll. “Thank you? And um… Did you make this?” The storage scroll certainly wasn’t standard issue and looked like art, for as practical as it probably was. She popped on a latex glove and ran her finger aside some of the graceful lines. “This one’s different,” she mused, “and you’ve… simply copied these central seals over? With a jutsu?” Like a Xerox carbon printer all on one scroll? It was too identical to be anything else.
“You have a good eye,” the shinobi praised. “And yes, your Auntie Kushina made it,” he grinned, perhaps not noticing the way Atene’s face screwed up in confusion or shock. “Anyway, I’ve gotta run, but your presents are in here. This one’s your birthright, really,” he added mysteriously, pointing to the seal in the center. “I’ve also finally had time to do some research into your yin issues and have come up with a plan to address them.” He patted another seal, pressing chakra into it when Atene stupidly mouthed, “Yin issues?”
Out popped a bunch of documents.
A LOT Of documents - with seals within more seals!
“I have -uh- ‘yin issues?’” Atene asked, her voice going high.
“Eh?” Her great-uncle asked, appearing beside her and startling her a bit. He didn’t usually move so fast. “What? Did ya talk to Shikaku-kun?” he asked the man.
“As well as a few others.” The blonde rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. “And I -uh-consulted the archives.”
Her uncle barked out a laugh, and then the blonde was bowling to him, ruffling her bangs - which messed up her tiny ponytails - and mentioning that one of the seals had cake in it.
“Cake?!” Atene didn’t remember the last time she had cake. Had she ever had cake?
“Cake indeed. I made it myself,” the shinobi grinned, throwing a wave over his shoulder, saying he wished he could stay, and wishing her a very happy belated birthday. And then…
“He disappeared!” Atene was shocked. It wasn’t a sunshin; the man was just… gone! She couldn't even feel him anywhere near them!
Her great-uncle only chuckled. “That’s the Yellow Flash.”
Atene’s mouth fell open.
“Greenie there’s your new Hokage.” He put his index finger to his lips as if it were a secret, perhaps, even as he perused the pages and pages of papers that would address her “yin issues.”
This whole thing, Atene decided, was a lot to take in.
As for me...
Having ‘Yin Issues’ doesn’t sound good, Atene mourned. She shook her head, figuring that whatever the problem was, it was better to address it and get it over with. Kami forbid her mother find out she had some kind of disability or something… “I guess that’s why he looked so familiar,” she wound up mumbling, shrugging because once again, things felt familiar but a little off center. She’d heard of the Yellow Flash, though, and was pretty sure he’d come into the shop before - but so MANY people came into their shop. Her father’s family made extremely high-quality, chakra-enhanced weapons. “Um…”
Where to begin?!
That guy was going to be Hokage?! Well, Uncle Mura did say that the current Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, needed to retire, but it wasn’t her business. They didn’t live in Konoha, proper. “He seemed kinda young.”
And who is this 'aunt' Blondie mentioned?
Her mother said her aunt was dead.
Or maybe she said she was dead to her?
“You know I offered to carry for her, Haru. –Otherwise, she’s gonna get herself killed!”
Yes, Atene definitely remembered Mitomi saying that to her dad.
“He is young,” Uncle Mura agreed after several seconds, a strange, sly grin creeping up his face as he continued reading. “Called it,” he hummed, then turned to her, brown eyes twinkling behind his spectacles. “Looks like it’s time to get you a tutor!”
Atene groaned, wondering if she could live without sleep since that was the only time she had available to do… anything else. Seriously! She was three and had to study and do chakra control exercises even while she worked! Even smashing metal and using chakra, she had to hold a leaf on her forehead and recite those damned sealing theorems or weird poems.
Her uncle pressed chakra into the middle seal, and Atene squawked, reminding him that it was her present the guy - the Hokage: wow, she mentally corrected herself - dropped off.
Out popped two folded tessens. “Oh, my.”
“You said it,” Uncle Mura softly agreed, touching the tessens reverently. He opened one, and Atene gasped, taking in the four beautiful, flowing waves painted on it. “Take care of them, kiddo. They were Lady Mito’s, you know.”
Why in the world would a three-year-old be given such fancy, heavy tessens?
And what did that blonde Hokage - future Hokage? - mean by them being her birthright?
“I think I know the perfect guy to tutor a shrimp like you,” Uncle Mura snarked before she could ask, tapping the deep dimple in his chin. “He just got back from Hi no Kaze…”
But before they could talk, another shinobi came in, wanting 18 boxes of special-order senbons, and Atene got back to work (after re-rolling the scroll; she wanted that Hokage-made cake,) hoping to get answers to her many questions later.
A week later, her mother began working on real ninjutsus with her. The henge was a breeze, and she got it on the first try (her mother didn't like the expression the identical witch staring at her had made,) and while Atene was slow with the replacement technique, she was well on her way to using it. The clone jutsu, however, was a problem...
“YOSH!”
Tiny, nearly four-year-old Atene blinked owlishly at the lean, green, gangly wall of muscles in front of her as he spoke to her father.
Even Mighto Gai’s face had muscles, and his smile was so white and sparkly. “Whoa.” It had to be a jutsu. Since he was so focused on her “honourable” father and great uncle, Atene looked him up and down suspiciously. He was maybe what, only 13 or 14, probably? Maybe 15, tops?
HOWEVER, he was either a Chunin or a Special Jonin and was wearing the standard green Konoha tactical vest with a long-sleeved skin-tight mesh armour underneath, which had been dyed to match the vest. The armour was tucked into green cargo pants, which were in turn tucked under thick, sealed weights, which covered most of the length of his high-quality ninja sandals. His cargo pockets seemed to be full of weapons, but he still sported additional weapon pouches on his backside. Additionally, his black belt featured nunchucks and a wooden flail attached to it. “Wow,” she whispered to herself.
–Although those weights on his calves were Uchiha-made, she was almost sure. Clunky.
“And THIS is your beautiful flower,” Green-san grinned, bending low to offer Atene a surprisingly gentle handshake.
“Watch it, Gai,” Otousan groused, rolling his brown eyes as he tried not to laugh at Atene’s stupidfied expression. “And yes, this is my little Tenten.”
“Otousan!” Atene hissed, not liking that nickname much. Minding her manners, however, the girl bowed and reintroduced herself. “I’m Mitokado Atene, Mighto-san.”
“So polite,” Mighto beamed - and Atene circulated her chakra fast and hard to dispel what she guessed wasn’t(?) a genjutsu?
Seriously?! Where did all those singing birds come from?!
Maito-san noticed but seemed delighted. “It’s an immeasurable pleasure to make your acquaintance, fair Tenten-chan!”
Aw, crap. That kiddy nickname was going to stick. This guy looked eccentric and stubborn: the shiny bowl-cut said a lot - but maybe she could work on that.
“...And you may call me Gai-sensei,” he continued in a long drawl, looking incredibly smug for some reason.
“Hai… Gai-sensei,” Atene agreed with a slighter bow, getting that weird feeling of deja vu. She tried to smile and, as usual, blew the sensation off. “What do you have planned for me, might I ask?”
“Naturally, we will begin with a RUN,” the man shouted, grabbing her small hands with his large calloused ones and twirling her onto his back. “Ha Ha Ha!”
Atene screamed. “Help! I’m being kidnapped!”
Her father only laughed, leaning out of the building, calling after them. “You’ll be fine! Have fun!”
Months later -
She HATED it! She hated running!
Hated it, hated it, HATED IT!
Her bones, hell, even her eyeballs ached, and if she heard one more time about how today was October 10th, meaning “Ten - Ten,” from her master or family, “Tenten-chan” would scream her little head off.
Thank Kami her parents were out, so she could hopefully sneak in and just Go. To. Bed… And thank the gods Gai-sensei saw a chance to meet up with his rival or whatever, so he’d leave her alone!
She shivered as she limped toward the house, a strange feeling creeping up her spine.
Fear, so strong that Atene reached out her senses to judge how far her demonic mother Mitomi was from her, overtook her.
Atene’s stomach dropped as it felt like the weight of the world and the multiverse's evil dropped upon it. She fell to the ground, shaking, pushed flat onto her belly, her chakra and muscles seizing uncontrollably. "Rghhhhh!"
Out of nowhere, Atene struggled to breath, in or out.
“Fuck!" old Uncle Maru yelled, charging out of the forge, a series of large scrolls already on his back. He did something to disrupt her chakra and was yelling over the screams and chaos in the distance. “Atene-chan, get into the house; go the basement! You know the code.”
He ran off but stopped and looked at the struggling girl, almost longingly, and then looked toward the village and shouted “GO!” as she moved to get up.
Off he shot.
Once she managed to get to her knees - which took a lot out of her - Atene’s ragged breath was taken away. “Jeeeeeeesus Christ,” she stuttered, awestruck, terrified, and staring through the trees at the unimaginably large spirit in the distance.
It was a fox. A nine-tailed kitsune, and as far away as she lived from Konoha, she could see it towering over… Everything.
Destroying EVERYTHING! Konoha was Hi no Kuni’s second-largest population center. Just from the size alone, dropping anything that size into a CITY would’ve killed hundreds, minimally, already.
And the fox was angry. It didn’t seem content to just leave or stand there.
“Almighty Father,” Atene began mumbling, pressing her hands together (not for a jutsu) and unaware of exactly what she was saying, “Forgive me, for I have sinned…”
She had.
She had.
She’d said this before, she realized, trembling. She’d begged for forgiveness for a life she’d lost soon after. She’d said and seen something like what was before her before, she was sure - but this, instead, was REAL and impossible and…
“No. No, no, no, no,” Atene rambled as she scrambled for the door.
It was taking her too long to move!
She’d barely opened the door when a man - the young, blonde Hokage - appeared, a bundle in his arms.
How could this be happening?! “Oh my fucks - of all the fucking…”
She'd seen something like this before in a fucking manga!
The man - Minato-san - grasped her small shoulder, and suddenly they were in her old nursery. “Gah!” The room had been shut for at least a year, she thought… “Wh-what? Eh?”
Atene wasn’t sure what she was asking. She just kept staring back and forth at the blonde hair the shinobi and baby shared. She realized the baby only had a diaper on, and it was “C-cold.” Too cold for a newborn baby.
It had to be a newborn. It looked like a newborn, was making newborn noises, and still had some of the vernix caseosa a newborn would have smeared over its head and shoulders. The poor thing hadn’t even been completely cleaned. “Gotta... be cold,” she whimpered, working her bottom lip.
Yet the air outside was boiling.
“Atene-chan,” the blonde man - the Hokage - said factually, without emotion other than a frown, “I’m assigning you a mission: watch over your baby cousin. I’m going to rescue his mother.”
And just like that, the man - the Hokage - was gone.
“Oh, shit,” she might have mumbled, unable to move. Thank Kami the baby just lay there, making a little baby noise every now and then.
The fox spirit outside sounded like he was shrieking. Atene couldn’t move; she couldn’t think!
Thankfully, the older blonde returned soon after with a woman who looked like she’d been through hell, bruised and broken. For a second with that hair, Atene had thought it was her mother. “Naruto,” the lady whispered longingly to the baby as she was layed by his side.
The baby and his wounded mother were in Atene's old bed.
Her mother used to do the sealing here, having crawled in beside her; whispering strange things... Doing strange things with those needles...
Please don’t seal him. Please don’t start chanting. “He’s… just a baby!”
This woman looked too much like her mother, just younger with a different eye color, but she didn’t look… crazy. Her red hair was pin-straight while her mother's was wavy, and their hairline was different, but there were too many similarities. “Please.”
The other redhead smiled sadly at Atene, dried blood all over her teeth and gown. “It's been so long, Tenten-chan.” She closed her eyes before looking at her son as if she’d never see him again.
She won’t, Atene knew.
What could she do?!
“...Too long,” the redhead added. “Much too long. …Naruto,” the woman whispered hollowly to her baby.
Atene was frozen, watching this “scene”(?) as it played out right in front of her. This isn’t real.
It’s not real.
She had to do something!
“Oh, my sweet baby.” After a long moment, the redhead glanced at Atene and smiled, licking her cracked, bloody lips and closing her eyes as she smelled her baby’s blonde hair. “Atene… I doubt you remember, but I’m your aunt Kushina, y’know.”
Atene shook all over, fisting her hands and forcing herself to help. She ran out and grabbed a glass of water to bring back to the lady, her aunt. “...N-nice to ah, meet you, ma’am,” Tenten managed to squeak out. “Here, um, you go.”
“Ha,” Kushina breathed, smiling and carefully sipping a little of the water Atene gave her. “Thank you.”
“Wh-what can I do to help?” Atene asked miserably after several long seconds. It was hard to remain standing with all of the dirty, vile chakra in the air, but Atene knew this was important…
How could this be happening?
A bolt of red shot in through the attached room’s window, and suddenly her devil of a mother was there, whisking Atene out of the room.
“NO! Wait!”
Chapter 2: Who I Used to Be
Chapter Text
“STOP! Please!” Atene fought Mitomi, kicking, struggling and even biting, terrified of what her mother would do, what she had done… What she was planning. “She’s your sister?!” Atene squealed with what had to be a hysterical laugh. “I didn’t know you had one, and then,” she shook her head: there was no time! There was no time for anything else. “Save her! –Them! Please!” She cried out as she was tossed hard into a metal chair. Chains flew up around her.
Chakra chains.
“Oh my God,” Atene whimpered. How had she not realized before? Her mother was Uzumaki, or part-Uzumaki.
“Shut up,” Mitomi hissed, her expression blank. Atene noticed that the woman was filthy and covered with streaks of blood, ink, and what looked like tar. “Kushina is not my sister. Azula is dead! –Kushina is merely a clansman.”
Yet a tear rolled down her cheek. When she noticed it, Mitomi flinched, turning away from her child.
Atene faltered for a second, never having seen the witch shed a tear. She took a deep breath - or as deep a one as she could manage, considering the heavy, vile, demonic chakra even here underground, hoping to sound soothing. “Okay. …Let me go,” she asked - she did not beg - and although she could admit her pleas were self-serving, she was also terrified for Kushina, baby Naruto, and Konoha, surprisingly enough. Honestly, she was afraid of her crazy mother going after them. “Hokage-sama gave me an order, in fact…”
Pacing and shaking, Mitomi bared her teeth. “You will NOT answer to that vile village that betrayed us!”
Atene paused and then laughed - it came out almost silent and ragged. “You… My whole life, YOU have betrayed me at every turn.”
Her mother straightened up, laughing hollowly. “Perhaps.” Then she went through five hand seals and pressed her hand to the floor, flicking blood and chanting something in a foreign language again. A large seal appeared.
“Please stop,” Atene whispered, wishing she were stronger, wishing she were older; wishing she’d taken a sword to this woman’s sleeping form at any of the times she’d dreamt of doing it this whole short life. She had no idea what Mitomi was doing, but seals were creeping up the walls in lines and swirls of blue. “Ah. You’re going to kill me.”
“Oh, no, my dear musume,” Mito whispered, the “s” sounds in her words lengthening as she continued to chant and rumble over the Kyuubi’s howls outside. “You will live. …Five of us were brought from Uzu to be culled by Konoha and Lady Mito. I was the oldest, yet I was not chosen. After tonight, all five of us will be gone. –But you will live.”
Atene couldn’t move. Her chakra was locked down, her body either exhausted, in too much pain, or perhaps simply poisoned by the chakra in the air and ground - but she could barely feel herself. “You’re… a monster.”
Her mother in this life only smiled back at her cruelly before going back to whatever it was she was doing.
Maybe it was bravery, maybe it was just that Atene wanted to have the last word. “I hate you so much.” And I will do everything in my power to spit on everything you ever were!
Her mother dragged sharp nails through her hair, gently at first, a strangely blank expression on her face. Then she got serious. Rage and killing intent hit Atene so hard that she locked up further, peeing herself. “Ha!”
Then Mitomi kissed her, hard, and Atene shook all over, utterly freaking out because the one thing her mother had never done to her was sexually assault her - but then Atene’s chakra started bleeding away in what felt like rivers, up from her fingertips and toes, up through her lips, up from her gates - and Atene suddenly recalled watching a… A filler episode?! –Something like that, wherein a redhead sucked teenage Naruto’s chakra through her lips, through a kiss.
She was going to die from chakra deficit this time. It was… unimaginably painful, and suddenly she felt as though she was floating over the whole scene. You’re dissociating. Just as her consciousness began to fade, her mother leaned back, laughing; cheering; black veins protruding everywhere - even from her eyes. Atene was horrified - and then she was kissed again, pain searing through her, chakra pouring into her…
And darkness took her.
When she woke up, Atene couldn’t move. When she tried, it felt like hot or cold knives were going through her joints and eyeballs. She lay limply in the metal chair. The chains were gone, but the seals were still in place. What was most terrifying was the silence.
Also very concerning were the black seals and veins protruding from her skin. Observing what she could of the torchlit room, she saw that the seals were connected to the surrounding walls.
Atene was fucked.
She wound up examining her past life - or one of her past lives, if what her father said was correct.
It took her a while to remember, perhaps days, but she was stuck in her own filth and hell anyway, so why not? Atene didn’t remember her old name, or her old family, but oddly enough, she remembered movies, TV shows, and her computer; her phone. She remembered getting coffee, energy drinks, and fast food, being single (and determined to stay that way,) getting a job in a nearby metropolitan city which was close to her old college, and being hit by a bus.
Twice. For fuck's sake.
She was hit by a bus - or something large - twice!
The first time, she’d been in her third year of college, and that was the time she remembered earlier, when she’d stood in the field, watching a not-so-fictional Konoha be crushed by a fictional spirit. Back then, she’d prayed and prayed to do better, to live, if she could only get back on her feet, finish her schooling, etc., etc.
And she did get better. It took her almost a year to begin walking again, but when she’d graduated with a bachelor's degree, she’d walked across the stage, head held high, red ginger - hair flowing behind me.
The second time was years later, after she’d pushed herself too far at the gym. She always went to the gym; had lists of things she always did so that she'd fit in better - but that day: Whoo. She’d barely been able to walk out of the joint, shaky and trembling after a spin class she was entirely unprepared for, and stepped onto the street - headed toward her car in the parking lot across the street - and tripped.
And something large: a bus or a truck had hit her, most likely ending her life.
Unbelievable.
Was Bus-kun a thing?! She remembered “Truck-kun” being a thing, but Bus-kun?!
Atene laughed out loud, wanting to believe this was a joke.
“Jesus.” She remembered struggling so hard through physical therapy to simply walk after that first accident. “If I ever make it out of this, I’ll never complain to Gai-sensei again about running.”
Gai-sensei. Wasn’t he simply one of many comedic foils for a violent story about magical child soldiers? She thought of Gai’s relationship with Kakashi, as it was told in the story. “I guess he was more than that.”
Gai was real now. Kushina had sure as shit been real; so was her baby.
What or who was she, though?
Not now. Let’s not think about that now.
In the hours that followed, she searched and searched her mind for memories of faces or names from her past life, but… Maybe this was a kindness, not being able to remember. Or maybe it was the Asperger’s that the old her had been diagnosed with that caused this.
“Yeah, you’re neurodivergent, alright, Atene,” she mumbled to herself, whether or not they reclassified Asperger's before she died. Autistic savant.
Whatever.
She was better now, right?
Wasn't she?
Yes. She could look people in the eye now. She did it all the time. Mitomi made me.
In the present, she was fine. Just fine. Atene was simply trying to get into a comfortable position to sleep. She wound up drifting off, old memories flitting through her mind, but one thought ever present:
What was happening outside right now?
She woke up sometime later, crashing to the ground in the near-dark. “Ohhhh.” The seals on the chair had given out. Ouch. She glanced around, noting the faint blue light source was from those seals still twinkling with life on the walls, ceiling, and ground. Working at the forge, she knew a few VERY simple fire techniques, and used a spark jutsu to relight a torch. “There we go.” She moved around the room slowly, wishing she knew what the seals, lines, and curves would do if she touched them. So far, she hadn’t blown an appendage off. “Good for me.”
There were at least two large water tanks down here, and a narrow passage toward a washroom.
How would a real four-year-old have survived this?!
Thank God she was an adult shoved into a metahuman child’s body. “That poor baby,” she thought, her mind drawn again to Naruto. "Poor family."
It didn’t matter if Naruto was her “real cousin” or not, they were connected now. She hated to wish that Naruto’s path was proceeding as it did in the manga, but honestly, it had to beat having Mitomi enter his life. Atene fisted her hands.
- She would not be like that woman.
- She would not be like the villagers who scorned Naruto in the story.
- She… just needed to get out of here so that she could do anything.
A day or so later -
She’d set up something of a camp, having cataloged the resources available to her. Atene downed another half a ration bar and a bite of a food ball. Disgusting. They did give her energy, though, LOTS of energy, and there were plenty of them down here, so Atene decided to begin going through larger storage scrolls. Her fans were down here, in what was essentially a walk-in safe.
She wished she hadn’t eaten Minato’s cake months ago… Then again, it would probably taste like ash now.
She’d found a wind-up clock, and although there was no way to tell what time it was outside, Atene set about counting the days she’d been down here, marking three dashes along a line in the wall. It had been at least that long, surely.
Longer, most likely. She crossed the lines out and started over.
Unfortunately, digging lines in the wall with a kunai didn’t interrupt the seals.
“I don’t want to die down here.”
Atene stared at herself in the (nonworking) washroom’s mirror. She’d cleaned herself up as best she could, rationing water, and had found some spare clothes, and eaten more jerky. Currently, she was wearing an old shirt with some defunct clan's sigil on it that flowed down to her ankles, even with the makeshift rope belt. The shirt's collar was hanging off her shoulder.
Far more importantly than that, the black veins had turned blue and were settling under her skin nicely. The bruises all along her torso had healed - but the seals remained.
She grimaced at her torchlit reflection. “Who are you? Who were you supposed to be, Atene?”
Tenten.
But who would wish to be Tenten?
Naruto’s SWING got more screentime than Tenten!
Maybe Atene was another Tenten? It was possible! And she was too old to be THAT Tenten, wasn’t she? She was four, so that meant with Naruto just having been born, “Tenten’s” future teammates, Neji and Lee, were maybe a year old or so? Yes. Maybe she wasn’t THAT Tenten. Good.
Still, looking at herself, she had to admit she gave off side-character vibes. Brownish-auburn hair that shined a little red in the sun now that it was longer, big brown doe eyes, a heart-shaped face. Atene guessed that she was decent-looking enough with her chubby childhood cheeks and all, but… mildly forgettable.
She didn’t remember Tenten even being in the follow-up series wherein adult Naruto was married to his Hyuuga classmate. That was a terrible show. Maybe the character “Tenten” had died or been sent out to pasture?
Good for fictional her if she got to retire.
“Me, though. –I’m gonna live.” I’m going to make a difference.
And I’m never going to be her.
Twenty-one lines were on the wall. She’d been out of water for two of those days, but today, she heard noise outside. Atene moved toward the wall it sounded like the noise was coming from. “IN HERE! HELP!” She pounded on the wall and, realizing it probably wasn’t helping anyone outside - her little fists could only do so much - she ran back and grabbed two pans and began banging them together as hard as she could. “HELP!”
“HELP!”
“Is anyone out there?!”
“Help!”
“...I’m here!”
Her voice faded as the day wore on. She’d forgotten to rewind the clock. “Help!”
“Help… I’m here,” she whispered from the ground, the pans falling out of one little calloused hand and then another.
I don’t want to die again.
No, she’d make it. People lived far longer without water… She was being a baby.
*BOOM*
A rush of green appeared in her vision, and then Atene was moved.
The next thing she knew, she was squinting and flinching against the sun, eventually looking up at a pretty teenage girl with a long black braid whose hands were lit up in green, cooling chakra. “You’ll be okay,” the girl said, her expression screaming that was less and less likely as the seconds dragged on.
Oh, no. Stop looking at me like that, kid.
Gai-sensei was kneeling beside the girl, tears falling down his cheeks. The poor kid looked beside himself.
“Shishou, we have a problem,” the girl called over her shoulder. “I need you here,” she said, getting up and walking away, leaving her with Gai. “Now!”
Chapter 3: Facing the Fictional Realities
Notes:
To anyone wondering, yes, I despise Konoha's elders as much as anyone does, but I couldn't help but think it was fun to shove another thorn in the Sandaime's side. With that in mind, I also decided to give Homura a personality.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Hiruzen stepped into the Barrier Division’s headquarters, his footsteps silent and dragging, his shoulders pained and weighed down. Upstairs, in what was the attic and seldom-used meeting arena, was his old teammate, Mitokado Homura.
He and Homura hadn’t seen eye-to-eye in a long time, but he’d like to think they still respected one another. Homura, after all, had supported him when he retook the reins of the village following Minato’s death.
Not that it was much of a choice, especially not for Homura. –Not when the only other suitable option in the village was Danzo.
“Hello, my friend,” he greeted the broken, bedridden man, nodding meaningfully at his attendant, who had bowed, in a silent bid for privacy. He waited until the nurse was out of earshot, thanking her for closing the door behind her as she left. “Homura. I bring good tidings. Your grand-niece, young Atene, lives.”
Homura slowly blinked and then turned his head slightly, his neck still thickly bound from the scars he suffered after getting too close and personal with a tailed beast. Homura had fought hard, sealing off central Konoha, protecting people and significant assets from the Kyuubi, even on his bum leg. –A leg he’d lost that night, before the Kyuubi had been sealed. “It is true, Mura.”
“...Atene-chan’s alive?” Homura asked tentatively, speaking for the first time since learning his brothers and nephews - alongside their families - had been killed over a month ago. He reached for his glasses, blinking rapidly. “Truly?”
“Yes.”
Homura’s eyes searched his, and the light Hiruzen had been so glad to see again faded, something shrewder and wary taking its place. “Well, then. How is she?”
“Alive and whole.” Perhaps. Hiruzen tried to hide a wince. He wasn’t successful.
Homura narrowed his eyes at his former teammate. “But there’s a problem.”
Hiruzen huffed out a bitter laugh. “You were always a sharp one.”
“One of us had to be,” Homura shot back, all humor gone. “What’s going on?”
Hiruzen took a moment to arrange his cloak on a nearby chair and placed his hat alongside it. “Mitomi-san sealed her daughter into the dungeon of your family’s forge...”
“It’s not a dungeon!”
Hiruzen ignored the ridiculous protest. The man’s property had a moat for Sage’s sake. “...A resourceful young Atene made camp with what she could salvage, but didn’t realize the old rations and food pills in your storage lockers contained amphetamines…”
Homura winced. “Aw, shit.” Those supplies from the Second War were probably unexpired - Atene was smart enough to look for an expiry date - but that didn’t mean they were used anymore.
Hiruzen nodded gravely. “Indeed.” Atene-chan was a mess and needed to dry out, badly. What the girl had ingested was never meant for long-term consumption, and never, ever intended for small children. Still, she had endured, surviving against all odds, and for that, she was commended. “Tsunade-chan is caring for her.”
Homura nearly came off the bed, somehow managing to turn to turn and put his feet foot on floor, growling and cursing as pain hit him hard. “Gah! …Fucking hell…. Goddammit! –Fucking fucks of shit-damn fucking… Fuck! –Grr!” He gritted his teeth, needing to get his shit together, no matter the pain he was in. “What do you MEAN, ‘Tsunade?’” There was no way, was there? “Tsunade came back?” No, they had too much history. “Don’t let that goddamn drunk touch my niece!”
Aggravated, Hiruzen rolled his eyes. This was another old argument, and Homura damn well knew the only reasons Hiruzen wouldn’t knock him flat for saying such an awful thing about his precious student were because 1) Homura couldn’t fight back if he did knock him senseless, 2) they were too old for that, but 3) after all she’d given to the village and shinobi world, Tsunade deserved respect although Homura was partially right about… No, no.
What would their senseis, Tobirama and Hashirama, say about him so disrespecting Lord First’s granddaughter? “Tsunade’s sober,” Hiruzen henged. Well. Tsunade was mostly sober. “...And technically, Shizune-kun is in direct charge of young Atene’s care.”
“‘Shizune-kun?’” Homura asked, the name vaguely familiar.
“Kato Shizune. Kato Dan’s niece.”
Ah. “Tsunade’s apprentice,” or so-called apprentice. “Is she any good?” Hiruzen nodded, seeming to mean it. Homura felt a more apt term than “apprentice,” however, would be “Kato Shizune, Tsunade’s kidnapping victim.” Considering that old shit more, Homura’s temper rose. How could Hiruzen not only let his legendary kunoichi student go rogue but also allow her to steal a promising Genin on the way out? “Fucker.”
“Yes,” Hiruzen agreed dryly. He let out a long breath and rubbed at his sore back, almost wishing he’d run when he retired. “We attempted to bring Atene-chan to the hospital for treatment, however…”
“‘However’ what?” Homura asked in a low voice.
Hiruzen sighed again. There was only one way to explain this, and that was directly. “I think Mitomi-san sealed her daughter out of the village.” He closed his eyes. Homura was already cursing up a storm about the troublesome woman again. The man certainly was creative. “Yes.”
“Tell me that sea witch is dead!”
“She is,” HIruzen droned, knowing full well he’d informed Homura of that earlier. “Back to topic, three modes of entrance to the village were attempted, but Atene-chan was literally thrown backward, out of the barrier, each time her carriers breached a certain threshold.” Homura’s profanities became even wilder. He waited for his old teammate to breathe, almost enjoying the blue air. It reminded him of old times. “It's been deemed safer to treat your grand-niece outside Konoha’s wards.”
Homura glowered. “Outside, huh?” He twitched, his face screwing up in anger. His nephew's family may have lived just outside central Konoha's walls, but he'd had plenty of family to back little Atene up in case of trouble. Her being out there alone, without kin? No. “If Danzo touches her, I’ll kill him. –I don’t care what you say.” Hiruzen only waved his hand. Minato had supposedly dismantled Root, but Homura KNEW Danzo. He was probably already gathering allies - or additional soldiers - now that Minato was dead.
Danzo had his beloved Kagami’s eye, and Kami only knew what he could do with it. Kagami had only activated the Mangekyo Sharingan right before he died, as he took a sword to the face, and then, reportedly, Danzo took the one eye that remained.
And Hiruzen allowed it! ‘For the village’ my ass! “I’m serious, Hiruzen. Tenten’s all that’s left!” He changed track when he felt his emotions getting the best of him, his eyes stinging, his throat constricting. He and Atene were all that was left of their family. “I want to see Tsunade. Pronto.”
Hiruzen sighed again. “I’ll see what I can do. But there is so much to do.”
Homura painfully shuffled toward the edge of the bed. “Well, help me get dressed and out of here.”
“Of course.” Hiruzen felt like he might be getting his old friend back. Maybe…
Thank Kami.
The newly-reinstated Third Hokage needed allies like never before.
Shizune noticed that little Atene was extremely well-spoken, most likely well-trained (which she wasn’t sure what to think about; the girl was only four years old after all,) and… The girl was very, very nervous about being left alone with Orochimaru-sama.
Her mentor would have had a fit, but Atene was a little girl, newly orphaned, and Shizune knew what that was like. Plus, the Snake Sannin did have an intimidating presence. So she hid and compressed her chakra, listening to what Orochimaru had to say or what he would do, but Orochimaru only took a series of blood samples from the little girl, murmured a few words to her, and made notes based on the seals Atene was covered with from the neck down. Then, as she’d seen him so often do, Orochimaru disappeared as silently as he’d first appeared, looking cross.
Atene-chan collapsed, falling backward, and looked as if she might cry. The girl was rubbing her face and muttering something under her breath, disturbing her IV. “Are you alright?” Shizune asked, moving forward with a glass of cool water. She gently corrected the way the girl’s arm was positioned.
“Probably not,” Atene answered, her heart still thudding in her chest.
Before that freak arrived, she had been trying to come to terms with the pretty, black-haired med nin who’d been working on her being Shizune-Shizune. –The fictional Tsunade’s Shizune. So yes, she’d freaked out even more when Orochi-fucking-maru melted out of the ground with a med bag, like some kind of evil old-timey Western alien doctor.
As her deceased uncles would say, “Fuck.”
Fuck, fuckity, fuck!
Atene closed her eyes again before sullenly observing Shizune, who, it turned out, was only 15 years old. Like Gai. They’d attended the Academy together for a year.
Why this whole thing was still freaking her out when she’d heard of Tsunade ever since she could remember in this life , Atene didn’t understand. Then again, few in her family had high opinions of Tsunade-hime. Their opinion of her was so poor that Atene hadn’t realized the complaints about Mitomi’s ‘missing-nin cousin’ were referencing Tsunade.
That… was completely unfair, she realized with startling adult clarity. Whether the Slug Sannin had left her home village or not, she’d revolutionized the field of medicine in this world, and had completed much of that work after becoming known as the physically strongest kunoichi to ever live.
“Ha. That’s what they say, but you can’t imagine how powerful my people were, musume,” her mother whispered, sitting seiza, just outside the sealing circle.
At the time, Atene hadn’t cared who her mother’s people were. She’d just stared blankly ahead, wanting the bitch to stop.
Somehow, everything Mitomi had done to her had stopped hurting at some point… Atene had become numb to almost everything. She didn’t want to think about it, but unfortunately, Mitomi’s words echoed in her head again.
Okay, perhaps her mother was right about one thing: that there might have been Uzumakis stronger than Tsunade, but Uzushio’s history was being erased.
God, that was horrible.
"ANYWAYS," Atene said to herself, fisting her hands and getting her thoughts back on track. Shizune was too young to deal with all the shit going through her head. She needed to speak with someone who could help if she wanted to make a difference. “Shizune-san,” she began, and Kami, this teenage girl was so nice, her smile so warm and genuine that it made Atene hurt for something she’d never received from a female in this life. “Respectfully, I’d like to speak with your mentor. Um…”
She had no right to; Atene was sure Tsunade’s presence was needed elsewhere - everywhere - and she’d barely gotten a glimpse at the gorgeous woman. (And that was when Atene had been nearly foaming at the mouth, high as a kite.)
Shizune seemed competent, and Atene didn’t want to make the girl feel as if she didn’t trust her. Who could she trust, though?
Her father… Kami, he was dead, and it hurt, but he’d also known what Mitomi was doing to her, didn’t he? She closed her eyes, knowing she’d have to deal with the grief or anger later, but now was not the time! “It’s just that… Tsunade-sama and M-Mitomi are - were - somehow related, and Orochimaru-san said something that concerns me.” Plus, there was the whole baby Naruto thing.
Shizune grimaced as she wondered if her mentor would face the girl. Atene had only referred to her mother, Mitomi, by her first name (never as “Okaasan”) and had almost seemed relieved to learn she was dead. The girl hadn’t asked for anyone else, and had seemed more conflicted about her father’s death than anything. All in all, the med nin was getting a bad feeling about the Mitokado family. “I’ll speak to her but…” She was curious. “What did Orochimaru-sama say to you, Atene-san?”
Atene let out a miserable sigh, finding it difficult to make contact with the girl’s big dark eyes. “Orochimaru mentioned Mitomi was his partner.” Sadly, that made a whole lot of sense: her psychotic mother in this life partnering with a man known in another world to experiment on children.
To hell with both of them.
Notes:
If I were her, I wouldn't want to deal with the Sannins at that time, either. 😂😂
Thanks for reading! Leave me a note/comment if you'd like!💕
Chapter 4: What About Naruto?! (Part 1)
Chapter Text
Tsunade couldn’t believe this kid.
- Mitomi and Haru’s kid.
- Both of them are gone.
With her babyish voice and cute, toddler mannerisms that were at that stage wherein they mimicked adults, it should’ve cracked her up, seeing how well-spoken and grown up the chibi was. That adult act should’ve intermittently stopped to account for childishness or outbursts - but never did. It was creepy!
Disorienting!
She’d told Shizune the same things and had been soundly scolded. Kami help her because her kid was already getting attached.
Tsunade found it hard to look at the little girl, but on the other hand, it was difficult to look away.
Atene looked more like her mother now that she’d been cleaned up, but once her widely dilated pupils had stopped trying to pull the world into their sweaty void, she looked alarmingly like Tsunade’s paternal aunt, a red-headed girl (favoring her Uzumaki mother) who’d been sent away around the same age Atene was now. She’d seen the many pictures of Hashirama-ojii’s and Grandma Mito's one and only daughter.
And, making things even more troubling, Atene had her same eyes. Almost. No one, not even Nawaki, had the unusual honey-amber irises bleeding to brown outer rings Tsunade did, although Atene’s eyes were, perhaps, a little browner.
It made her wonder. Had Mitomi been her missing paternal aunt’s daughter? Was she then Senju? –From the main line, like she was?
If so, why had no one told her?!
Once upon a time, Tsunade and Nawaki had loads of cousins; dozens. They were more like clansmen, but she and Nawaki always called their Uzumaki clansmen “cousin.”
Out of those, Mitomi was once her favorite. She was mature and smart; sly. Her grandmother also favoured the talented Mitomi when she came with the others to Konoha to accompany Kushina.
Poor Kushina-chan.
Mitomi was the oldest of the girls who arrived to live in Konoha that day, and was closer to her age. Her grandmother said the reason Mitomi wasn’t chosen to house the Kyuubi was because of that. Like hers, Mitomi’s chakra system was already set. Her coils might have burst had she taken her burden, Mito-obaa said.
But Grandmother sealed the Kyuubi into herself without issue as an adult.
Tsunade knew she wasn’t asked to house the Kyuubi partly because she was Hashirama’s “honored granddaughter.” Yes, there was also the treaty, stating Uzumakis would house Konoha’s demon. She probably could’ve done it, but Konoha needed her in the field.
Looking back, Tsunade had noticed the way her grandmother’s eyes followed Mitomi; how she favored her; was sweeter to her than the other Uzumaki girls. Maybe she didn’t want her other granddaughter taking her burden.
Tsunade blew out her cheeks. This was all fantasy - or theoretical, anyway. Just a wild hypothesis she needed to test.
“Atene-san would like to speak with you, Shisou,” Shizune whispered, looking as earnest and serious as she ever did. “Says it’s important.”
Tsunade sighed, trying to psych herself up for this.
Later -
Tsunade carried over the girl’s new file, using it as a shield to separate them further - which was ridiculous. “You wanted to say something, brat?”
Atene blinked, unsure of what to think. She’d noticed Tsunade - Tsunade! (She wanted to squeal. In her past life, Tsunade was her favorite) staring at her from across the inn’s suite several times, but as soon as their eyes met, Tsunade would turn away. Now she wasn’t meeting her eyes again.
The old her said “Thank goodness!”
Mitomi always punished her for not meeting someone’s eyes so… Maybe averting her eyes was acceptable.
If Mitomi thought something was good, it was bad, she told herself, knowing it was simplistic but not caring.
“Thank you for seeing me,” Atene said to her lap, keeping her eyes pointed at her hands, which were twitching there. “I’m sure you have many other responsibilities, so it means a lot.” Atene took a deep breath, almost fisting her hands a couple of times, not seeing the way one of Tsunade’s perfectly groomed eyebrows hitched up in disbelief. “Here’s the thing. Two things… First off, there’s Naruto-tan, of course. And then…” She winced, making herself get the words out. “I’m sure you’ve noticed my- m-Mitomi e-experimented on me, and um… O-Orochimaru-san said he was her partner.”
Tsunade frowned, and after several long seconds wherein she tried to absorb what the chibi just said, she pulled up a chair, feeling a headache coming on. She recirculated her chakra a few times, needing to be sober for this, sadly. “What do you mean?” What the hell are you talking about?
“Orochimaru-san said he was my mother’s partner,” Atene insisted, letting out a little huff. “I can only hope he meant research partner or something because I don’t want to consider that that person’s my father!”
Ah, crap; she shouldn’t have said that.
Tsunade shuffled in her chair, gritting her teeth. “And what’s wrong with Orochimaru?” He’d always looked different; that wasn’t his fault.
Atene was not going to let the conversation end with “well, he’s a pedophile,” something Tsunade didn’t know (and neither did she, truly) because that comment about the Slug Sannin’s teammate might get her thrown through a mountain. “Well…” Think fast. “If they were… romantic partners,” God help me, “that might mean Otousan wasn’t my otousan, right?” Atene’s eyes stung at the thought of her father, but not as much as before. Tsunade’s intent eased up.
“Heh,” Tsunade chuckled, guessing her thoughts had been unfair. It was odd, realizing she’d been ready to defend that freak idiot, her old teammate. “I wouldn’t worry about that.” She was sure Orochimaru wasn’t into women. “Yeah…” Mitomi had some strange techniques, and now she remembered the Uzumaki kunoichi sidling up to Orochimaru (who probably all but wanted to dissect her.) “They probably collaborated. Professionally,” she clarified.
“Great,” Atene drawled, feeling sick and hanging her head, her shoulders bunching up.
Tsunade’s lips curled up. The kid was expressive, that’s for sure. “Why is that so bad?”
“‘Why is that so bad?’” Atene echoed after a second of disbelief, her voice going high. “‘Why…’ Are you joking?! Mitomi experimented and did weird shit to me!” She yanked up the sleeve of the top Shizune had lent her, making a muscle. She looked like freaking Scott Steiner - and with the seals and her veins being so blue, it made her body look even more manly. (Okay, maybe saying she looked like that old musclebound wrestler or a man was a wild exaggeration, but no child should have muscles like this.) “Does this look normal to you?”
Tsunade stared at the flexed muscles, her frown deepening into a glower, which told Atene all she needed to know.
Tsunade pushed off her chair. “Shizune!”
Shizune had missed something big.
Surely Mitomi hadn’t…
Atene sat up higher in the bed. Tsunade was paying attention, and she needed the Slug Sannin, the future Godaime, more than she needed fifteen-year-old Shizune. “I need to know what she did to me, ma’am. Plus, there’s Naruto-tan!”
Tsunade shook her head, wondering what other awful new information was going to come out of the girl’s mouth. Did she even want to ask? Sadly, the kid seemed the insistent type. “Who or what is Naruto-tan?”
Atene’s mouth fell open. She didn’t know? “Naruto-tan is Kushina-san and Hokage-sama’s baby!”
“...”
Holy shit, Atene realized, Tsunade hadn’t known. “Uh, Shizune-sensei?” Had she just turned Tsunade catatonic? She swore the woman wasn’t breathing.
“Coming,” Shizune called sweetly from the washroom. She wiped her hands on a paper towel as she stepped back into the room. “I told you you didn’t have to call me that, Atene-san.”
“And you can just call me Atene,” the four-year-old promised.
Shizune nodded and then noticed something was amiss. “Uhhh.” Her mentor was transfixed on something she couldn’t see again. “What’s going on?”
Atene’s face screwed up cutely. “I told her Kushina-san and Hokage-sama had a baby. –The day of the Nine-tails attack!”
Shizune gasped. “They did? Oh, you mean Yondaime-sama.” Atene nodded eagerly. “I didn’t know Lady Kushina and he were together.”
Atene nodded again, imagining that was the case. She glanced worriedly at Tsunade but was glad she’d begun breathing again, although it seemed a little rapid and huffy. “They both had wedding rings on, so I think they were married.” Shizune made a delighted sound and Atene couldn’t help but smile a bit, too. Kami, it felt good to get this story out of her system. “Lord Hokage went to rescue Kushina-oba-san and left Naruto-tan to me. –He still had a little of that white stuff on his body, so I knew baby Naruto was a newborn. –Like a real newborn.”
“Ahhh,” Shizune nodded, getting it.
“That’s enough, you two,” Tsunade suddenly barked, making both of the girls jump. Then the chair she was holding onto just evaporated into splinters under her strength or intent.
Atene was gaping. THAT was awesome.
“You girls are going to stay here while I talk to Sensei,” she steamed, leaving the mess to Shizune and grabbing a long cloak, whipping it around her dramatically, the wind following her. “Stay here and DON’T SPEAK TO ANYONE!” She turned toward them on the way out, wordlessly daring them to defy her. “DON’T. MOVE!”
She slammed the door behind her, then opened it one more time a few seconds later. “S-class, Shizune,” she told her apprentice. Then she left again.
“Whoa,” Atene remarked, looking at the state of the room. It was as if the disaster from a hurricane had been left in Tsunade’s wake. “What a mess!”
Shizune sighed, looking put out but resigned. “Yeah, she does that.” She got up to clean up her mentor’s mess, but this time she didn’t do it alone.
When Tsunade returned the next day, she was pissed.
She’d ordered Shizune to perform all kinds of tests on her young charge, to the point Atene was positive she would shrink up and die from lack of any more blood to give.
Atene pouted. Tsunade wouldn’t give any answers and kept leaving so that Shizune could do her dirty work (and most likely avoid needles and blood.) “I’m woozy.”
“I bet you are,” Shizune muttered under her breath and then offered a comforting smile. The girl was holding up extraordinarily well for a preschooler. Most kids would be screaming and crying after (or before) all these blood draws. “I’m sorry about all this. Would you like some crackers with your juice, Atene-chan?”
“Yes, please; when you have time.”
Shizune only chuckled at how polite the girl could be and moved to unseal more supplies. She felt sick, having learned that Atene’s mother had done something to accelerate her daughter’s growth - although she didn’t know the specifics. Neither did her mentor or Atene, unfortunately.
Hopefully, that’s what Tsuande was outside investigating.
They’d thought - well, they’d THOUGHT Lady Mitomi’s sealing had gone wrong, or that the seals she’d used to protect her daughter had unintended consequences. Her mentor knew that wasn’t the case anymore.
It was a lesson; an important one. “Never assume.” Her mentor had said that a hundred times… Shizune felt guilty for missing things that could affect her patient’s health; a child’s health.
“Ne, Shizune?” Atene asked, feeling uncomfortable. The ravenette looked miserable and troubled. “Can you tell me more about yourself?”
“Me?” Shizune asked, seeming surprised. Atene watched as the teen moved to a posture of parade rest, finding it amusing and worrisome. “I guess… I like trying new things - like food and stuff - and travel; seeing new places.”
Atene nodded; she’d like to see new places, too.
“Obviously, I like learning medical ninjutsus and other things, reading, and…” The black-haired teen’s expression turned a little sly, her cheeks pinkening. “I’m working on developing my own poisons.”
“Reeally?” Atene drawled, knowing absolutely nothing about that. “Can you show me? –I won’t touch anything!”
Shizune tilted her head, considering it. She did need to get back to her experiments. Tsunade always reminded her that they needed to be monitored regularly. “Promise not to touch and sit quietly?”
Atene nodded. “Cross my heart and hope to die,” she swore, using her index finger to cross over her heart, and then pulled at her eye. “Stick a needle in my eye.”
“Eww,” Shizune shivered. “Don’t say that! But okay.”
Minutes later, Shizune had unsealed a crazily large chemistry set. It took up most of the suite’s third room. “Whoa.”
Shizune perked up, feeling proud. “Whoa is right! Now here’s what you have to know about chemistry, Atene-chan…”
It turned out that Atene learned quickly, and Shizune liked teaching. They had a great time until Tsunade came back again, this time bringing a couple of ninjas with her…
Notes:
To think, I started this story just to get into the habit of writing again after a lengthy health emergency. And now it's taken on a life of its own!
Chapter 5: What About Naruto?! (Part 2)
Chapter Text
Atene took one look at the Yamanaka Tsunade brought to her hotel suite and couldn’t breathe.
She flew up and began to watch the room from above. Floating above it all, she watched it happen; watched her body freeze; felt the air turn dark. She saw an impossibly beautiful, blonde-haired woman, Tsunade, kneel before her in slow-motion, saying something she couldn’t hear. She saw Shizune gasp over something; saw the woman with the pigtails whisk her child-like body into the closest room, the bathroom. She saw the door close and waited, hovering outside.
She wanted to tell the girl she was now to just go along with it: to allow a mindwalk or what have you. Who cared what she knew? If someone with power could use her memories of a manga from another lifetime to stop chaos from brewing, then so be it.
But then again, there were people like Danzo. And one of the shinobis Tsunade brought back with her was an unknown.
She couldn’t let them see if it would all get back to a man like that. Uncle Mura often said the Third Hokage was “senile or mighta been genjutsued! –That old fuck.”
Just as bad or worse, her uncles had quietly told horror stories about those Yamanakas. Members of the clan frequented their shop on occasion, and things always got very quiet when they did. Atene was left to complete their orders alone so many times.
Why did they leave a small child to deal with those they were wary of?!
It didn’t matter now.
Everyone was gone.
- That’s what they said. All her uncles died the day the Nine-tails attacked, along with her parents.
The day Obito attacked.
Obito.
Obito was out there alive and suffering, being used.
Killing his former teacher and his family - or attempting to. Killing my family. Leaving our home a “dead zone.”
Shaking and sobbing silently into Tsunade’s chest, (seriously, why did the author of “Naruto” have to draw the Slug Sannin and ugh: Mitomi like this? Tsunade’s back had to be absolutely KILLING her,) the real Atene tried repeatedly to get her emotions under control, but her tears, grief, and fear felt never-ending.
She didn’t think she’d ever cried before. Not since she was a baby, maybe. It wasn’t allowed, and at some point, she’d just gotten numb to everything. –Or to many things.
“You’re alright,” Tsunade promised again, rubbing soothing circles in the girl’s back from where she was sitting on the closed commode. She’d grabbed the kid and pulled her into the bathroom for some privacy, needing to observe her better.
It bothered her greatly that the girl kept apologizing through her whimpering; that she was so quiet; that she shook so hard, muttering nonsensically that she was sorry for being weak and “unimportant.” Everything she’d learned in the Kami-damned village over the past two days pointed to a little girl abused and taken advantage of by those closest to her.
Oh, the excuse this time was that Atene had been born weak and ill with a deadly yin/yang balance that should’ve killed her; that the family thought Mitomi was doing what was best for her. –That Atene liked working; that she needed to “train” obsessively to keep her strength up.
Orochimaru, though… Orochimaru talked about the girl as if she were his and Mitomi’s prized science experiment, but told her nothing useful. Or very little.
Her blood - HER blood running through the girl’s veins, and this is how he repaid her.
She should’ve known beyond a shadow of a doubt what kind of man he was when he’d genuinely offered to kill Jiraiya to get them out of Ame faster. –After Jiraiya or she had saved his ass time and time again.
- Or after that! When he’d wanted to kill those poor orphans!
She Should. Have. Known.
Kami, she needed a drink, but had to be sober to rein in her temper. She looked at her glass of whiskey longingly.
There was so much work to do. “Crying is okay, Atene-chan. –Or Tenten; that’s what they call you, right?” Hiding her face, Atene let out a ragged whine that tore at her frigid heart, tears still flowing down her little cheeks.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” the girl swore. “I’m sorry for um…THIS! For um, misbehaving!”
Tsunade shook her head, disgusted and hurting for this child.
Why did she allow Shizune to drag her back here after she learned about the Nine-tails’ attack?!
On the way toward Konoha, she thought she’d be (at worst) tending the injured from outside the village, sending Shizune off to handle the bloody cases she couldn’t stomach.
Kami, she made herself sick! Maybe… maybe it would be better if she dumped Shizune here and let her stay with little Atene.
No. She owed it to Dan to look after Shizune; to train her in everything she knew, and Atene couldn’t get into Konoha anyway. She couldn’t trust those in the village with her precious niece. Poor Shizune looked as if she didn’t know what to do, staring at the little girl, mourning what she was seeing.
She nodded at the teenager when she used hand signals to ask whether or not she should use a genjutsu to calm the kid down.
Atene caught it immediately - recirculating her chakra and giving Shizune a disdainful look. “Ha,” Tsunade smirked, grabbing her drink. “Good job, kid.” That was very impressive for a four-year-old. She hoped she was naturally talented. Otherwise, a kid that young being trained to dispel a genjutsu would’ve pissed her off. “Here. Drink this.”
Her eyes went wide when the kid open-throated her whole drink.
“Shishou!” Shizune shrieked, her hands quickly lighting up in green chakra as she aided the sputtering girl, who was gagging and coughing.
“Ha, it wasn’t that much,” Tsunade guessed.
“I swear to all the gods, Shishou,” Shizune steamed, wondering if she needed to pump the girl’s stomach.
“Mmm.”
Atene relaxed into the calming chakra and blinked up at the two women, slowly mopping at her face with her sleeve. Tsunade held a tissue to her face. “Blow.” She snorted when Atene blushed a violent red, mumbling that she could do it herself.
“This is mortifying,” the girl whispered, wincing and still shuddering between coughs.
Shizune knelt beside her. “How ‘bout we let Shishou baby you a bit, ne, Atene-chan?” Tough as nails or not, Tsunade was good with kids when she wasn’t giving them liquor!
Atene relaxed again and blinked at her owlishly, humming, letting the strange feelings of healing chakra and alcohol take hold. “I feel stupid sayin’ it,” she muttered, feeling the whiskey(?) already, “but is this a dream?”
Tsunade chuckled. Three of them crammed into a small bathroom, trying to calm down a girl she previously didn’t know existed? “More like a nightmare,” she snarked.
“Shishou!” Shizune scolded, still outraged.
Tsunade stood, pulling Atene’s cheek to her shoulder. “Did you see it?” she asked in a serious, quiet tone.
Shizune bit her lips, hoping Atene wasn’t listening or coherent, anyway. “The black color, you mean?”
Tsunade nodded, closing her eyes and sighing. What had Mitomi done to her daughter? The first thing she’d checked when she realized something was “wrong” - aside from all the inverted, strange seals on the kid - was to look for markers that showed signs of Mokuton-attempted manipulation, as the Senju Elders used in generations past. But those weren’t there. Her idea about the Mokuton had made Orochimaru chuckle: that absolute asshole!
So if that wasn’t it…
Had Mitomi somehow weaponized Atene’s Yin chakra? Before this little episode, Tsunade’s latest hypothesis was that the Mitokados were addressing the Yin issue: as in trying to combat it. That boy, Gai-kun, had mentioned that.
But the girl’s lips, sclera, and nailbeds turning black when upset was beyond irregular.
She knew of exactly one Nara whose sclera blackened when he’d used a clan technique, but no one else.
“Atene,” she addressed the girl quietly, jostling her. It was a fluke idea but… “Can you make another big muscle for me?”
Atene was pouting, her eyes swollen from crying and glazed from the alcohol, but she nodded, flexing her arm. And what do you know, her bicep wasn’t nearly as large as it had been earlier.
Tsunade wasn’t yet sure what that meant - or if it was simply the result of Atene being worn out and not putting in real effort. She sighed, glancing at Shizune. “Wish I hadn’t brought that brat Yamanaka so quickly.” She hated that anyone had seen that.
Konoha sucked up bloodlines and unique techniques like it spat out dreams and dead children.
Shizune winced, hand holding the doorknob. “I take it you were given no choice?”
“Tch. No choice whatsoever.” The village wanted answers from the only witness to have not yet been interviewed regarding the Yondaime’s final minutes of life. “Let’s go.”
“Hello, Mitokado-san,” the man nodded, smiling gently. “I am Yamanaka Inoichi, and this is my apprentice, Uchiha Shisui.”
Well, fuck me sideways and ask me to thank you, the adult stuffed into a child’s body thought.
“It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance,” Atene said instead, somehow straight-faced. She bowed and stared at her socked feet, ignoring the alcohol-caused blur. “I’m sorry to have kept you waiting,” She’d probably never get over the crushing embarrassment of having a childish, massive breakdown in front of a group of high-level ninjas.
“No problem. You’ve been through a lot over the past six weeks, haven’t you, Mitokado-san?”
Atene bristled. Saying she’d been through a lot was putting it mildly, and calling her by her last name… Well, let’s just say Atene had a boatful of “unnecessary feelings” about her family.
Alone in that dark basement for over a month, Atene remembered how many times her father had looked in on her, silenced in a sealing circle, and had done nothing. How he’d only pursed his lips when Mitomi used those needles that burned for God only knows what purpose. How his lips turned up in disgust while Mitomi chanted and flicked blood here and there.
- How he never stopped her.
She didn’t remember ever getting a hug until just now with Tsunade. No, instead, her father would pat her head, or grip her shoulder, patting it, too, on occassion. She guessed they weren’t that kind of family.
It’s bullshit, she thought, not knowing what other ninja families did. In her old life, she didn’t emote, and in a dark basement all alone, she’d come to grips with how nice it was not to be that way anymore. But look what they did to her. “Just call me Atene. Or Tenten,” as bizarre as wanting that felt. Call me anything but Mitokado-san.
Her family had been wiped out and…
She soundly chose not to think about them. She chose not to think about how RELIEVED she was that her mother, Mitomi, was dead because she was only getting worse and more manic. Inoichi was saying something, but Atene couldn’t hear it. “Is Mit- is my mother really dead?”
Way to go, Atene, she thought dryly - maybe tipsy or worse. She’d certainly brought the room to a standstill.
“She is,” Inoichi responded gently, a strange look on his face.
Good, Atene thought, spitting the word in her mind. “Okay. …What can I do for you two today?” Inoichi and Tsunade shared a look that went right over her tipsy little head, but Atene didn’t trust it.
Inoichi smiled that same paternal smile again, tilting his head and leaning forward to level their eyes - which Atene didn’t like at all. “I was wondering where you were on the night of the Nine-tails attack.”
Atene rolled her eyes. Surely he already knew. “That’s easy. I’d been training with Gai-sensei - which amounts to running and dodging his weapons, or lifting weights, mostly.” Inoichi nodded while Shisui - Shisui! - began taking notes. She blinked when she realized the adorable-looking boy was wearing a kid-sized police uniform. Huh. “Anyway, Gai-sensei dropped me off at the moat before going on his merry way, and I headed toward the house. —It’s next to the shop,” she added, not mentioning how the two were attached. “I had this… feeling of doom, I guess. It was horrible. I thought - I thought it was Mitomi, but worse,” she admitted in a drunken snort (and yes, she noticed how concerned Inoichi and Shisui looked - although the way Inoichi seemed to realize she was inebriated made him give Tsunade the driest, most unimpressed look ever, which made her shake with silent laughter.) “Okay, okay,” she snickered, getting her act together. “Anyway: BOOM. Bid bad fox in the middle of Konoha. I mean, it was so big I could see it from our property, and then Uncle Mura came sunshinning out of the forge carrying a bunch of scrolls.” Shisui looked surprised, but Atene was on a roll. “He did something to help me up, then ordered me to hide. Then, I was at the door, and Minato-san just appeared with his son in his arms.”
She blinked at the stupefied looks she was getting for that. Tsunade clicked her tongue.
What the hell? If Tsunade didn’t want her to say something, she should have briefed her!
“Naruto-tan only had a diaper on.” Atene minutely shook her head, eyes shut tight and imagining it, having gone over this scene in her mind a thousand times. “Minato-san, er, Minato-sama,” she corrected herself, “teleported us to my old nursery - uh, my old bedroom, you see - and he… He asked me to guard Naruto-tan while he went to rescue my aunt. –Said it was my mission.”
“...”
“Your ‘aunt?’” Shisui asked, looking genuinely puzzled.
Inoichi’s reaction was more interesting by far. He had sat up more and almost looked like he was sweating.
“Uzumaki Kushina.” Atene watched as Inoichi closed his eyes, his hands clenching on his Jonin pants. He quickly adjusted, pulling himself together, Atene guessed, and then she clarified. “Mitomi said she was more of a clansman, but Kushina-oba asked me to call her ‘aunt,’ so I will.”
Inoichi nodded, composed again - falsely, Atene guessed. “Then what happened?”
“He brought Kushina-oba back minutes later, but she was… bad off.” Dying, she didn’t say. “She’d been… fighting.”
Shisui cleared his throat. “Lady Uzumaki’s jutsu helped save Konoha.”
“I’m glad,” Atene said genuinely. That got a smile out of the boy. “And she did it after just giving birth.”
Shisui frowned, his shoulders tensing.
Seriously, how old was Shisui? He was quite a bit younger than Gai or Shizune. She gritted her teeth against the sting in her eyes again, her throat closing up as she recalled just how utterly sad watching the whole thing was. “Anyway… Minato-sama layed her down beside Naruto-tan and… She fussed over him, ya know. She was… SO sad. –But also kind.” Really kind.
She clenched her fists when no one said anything. “Minato-san gave me a mission to guard his son. And he disappeared, leaving Kushina-oba behind. But then… Mitomi dove through the window and grabbed me. It was so fast! …I tried to fight her - the fucking psycho,” she added about her mother, her eyes watering up in fury. “She chained me to a chair with her chakra chains - something I didn’t even know she had - and performed some kind of ritual. …I woke up after - and by then, it was quiet.” Too quiet.
No one said anything.
“Where’s Naruto-tan?” They only stared at her, and Atene slowly stood, drunkenly deciding she was going to throw hands. Tsunade’s hand gently dropped on her shoulder.
“Good job, Atene-chan. –Or ‘Tenten:’ I like that.” She liked it even more when the wasted little girl (seriously, she thought the girl would only take a sip of her booze, not down two fingers of it) clicked her tongue at her irritably. What a little brat. “And you didn’t see Minato after that?”
“No,” Atene admitted, wishing she had. All the fight had gone out of her. “I must have passed out after Mitomi’s kiss of death.”
And then Atene laughed, deciding to clock out again, grinning at the weird looks she was getting for that statement.
Later -
Atene woke still and silently, like always. Her breathing steady, she checked her surroundings, realizing it was either nighttime or early morning. Shizune’s chakra was steady and light in the next room, but Tsunade was nearby, in the kitchenette. She still didn’t have answers to so many things. The last thing she remembered was being interviewed about Naruto’s family. “Where’s Naruto-tan?” she asked the woman. Tsunade was wearing a pair of light blue pajamas and washing out a teacup.
“Ah, you’re awake,” she said to herself, turning toward the girl who’d probably thrown a wrench in her sensei’s plans. That’s what the reinstated Hokage got for being an asshole and trying to initially deny the baby’s existence. Trying to erase that there are more of us. “Naruto-tan’s fine; I checked him myself.” Her lips curled up a bit when the girl seemed to relax a bit. Atene genuinely cared about the babe she’d spent only minutes with. “And, kid. Minato was a fool to give you that mission.”
“That’s not fair,” Atene insisted, her head feeling like it was splitting open. A hangover. It had been a long time since she’d had one of those. She winced, bringing her hands to her head, and relaxed when Tsunade’s green-lit hands covered hers. “Magic,” she moaned in relief.
“Chakra,” Tsunade corrected, amused.
“Ahhh. –But Naruto…”
“Uzumaki Naruto is being cared for by the richest standing clan in Konoha, Atene. –And I don’t want you to mention him again. …Alright? That’s an order.”
Atene searched Tsunade’s eyes, noting again how similar they were to her own. For a second, she childishly wished Tsunade were her mother. That was pretty pathetic, considering it had only been a couple of days. Plus, she was an adult. She didn’t need anyone. “I just want him to be okay. –To be loved.”
“Mmm.”
“He was loved, you see… That much was obvious.” How nice to be so loved.
Tsunade sighed. “I’m sure he was. –And you completed the mission Minato gave you, Atene.”
Atene hummed. “Did I?” She layed her head back down on her borrowed pillow. She’d just need to get these seals off - or disable how they reacted to the village barrier system - and then she could check on him. Plus, hopefully, she could make something out of herself.
Hearing that Naruto was being cared for was a relief, but how long would it last?
“I’m going to have to be a kunoichi, aren’t I?” It had been expected, although her father often mentioned that she could also become a “secret female samurai,” instead, telling tales of those in Hi no Kuni’s capital or the Land of Iron.
Tsunade scoffed. “That’s entirely up to you.”
Atene felt like that was a lie, and they both knew it.
Tsunade stopped at her room’s door, looking back at the small child lying awake on the futon. “You never asked what happened to the fox.”
That’s because Atene knew what happened to the fox, Kurama, of course. Atene suddenly rethought what she believed she knew and slowly rose, looking like she’d seen a ghost. “Did my mother do something to it?”
Tsunade shook her head, relieved for some reason. “Ha. No.” Dealing with abused children was difficult; in her experience, she knew she could expect any kind of reaction - or none at all. “The Yondaime defeated the fox but… I think Mitomi might have tried to assist.” Her additional job tomorrow was to find out how.
Actually, that was Orochimaru’s job, but Tsunade could no longer trust him.
“Hmm.” Atene curled up again, wondering how Mitomi’s presence had affected what she knew as canon. And on that note, Atene thought, how had Mitomi affected Tenten? Had she summoned her dying spirit from another world?
So many questions.
“Go back to sleep, brat.”
Atene knew there would be no answers tonight. “Goodnight, ma’am.”
Medic72876 on Chapter 1 Sun 31 Aug 2025 04:33PM UTC
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HannahDaniel1 on Chapter 2 Tue 02 Sep 2025 02:37PM UTC
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stbando on Chapter 2 Tue 02 Sep 2025 04:41PM UTC
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Medic72876 on Chapter 5 Sun 07 Sep 2025 08:48AM UTC
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