~*~
Bonds of Blood
By: Animeroxsmyworld
Chapter 15: Revelations
~*~
The contents of Naruto’s folder fell to the ground as well, scattering across the floor as his certificate became the only thing held in her grasp now.
Her jaw was open, before it began trying to move, making inaudible sounds.
She couldn’t stop starring at the neat writing on the line.
Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina.
Naruto’s parents. Her parent’s. His family name, her mother’s family name.
Her hand tightened, crinkling the certificate slightly as she frantically searched the scattered papers on the ground. She brushed them aside, skimming the names as her mind whirled, trying to piece together this huge chunk of information she had just uncovered.
She found her birth certificate and shakily placed them side by side. Her heart started pounding in her chest as she scanned them, her mouth feeling unnaturally dry.
They were nearly fucking identical!
Parents, birthday, blood type, birthplace, time of birth…
Goosebumps rose on her arms as she shook her head vigorously. No, it had to be a mistake!
He couldn’t be…they couldn’t…it had to be a lie!
She trembled from her kneeling position on the ground, her hair trailing across the floor.
She could still picture Naruto so clearly with slitted blood red eyes, fangs, and blood splattered across his clothes. The festival night four years ago. The very image sent chills racing down her.
Naruto was the Kyuubi no Kitsune! A demon! He killed her parents! Destroyed the Village!
“It’s not tr—“ She started desperately. It was only a piece of paper. It didn’t mean anything.
Then something caught her eye and she almost swallowed her tongue.
Naruto’s picture was looking up at her, the bottom corner concealed by the tip of his fallen folder. Her picture, which had fallen from her folder, was lying just inches from his at an angle.
Wide eyed, she nudged it ever so slightly so that they were both facing the same angle.
“Oh dear God…” She choked as her heart tightened.
Alike.
Oh God, they looked alike!
She had never noticed before. Now that she saw it, it was uncanny.
Like a big black square on a white sheet of paper.
You couldn’t help but notice it once you saw it.
The family resemblance…dear lord it was startling.
The blue eyes, the nose, the lips, the same shade of blond hair…
He looked just like her father!
Something inside her began to itch as she starred at the picture, her mind whirling with all this new information. Everything about her life was changing. Hari was gone. Fuji was hurt. She had failed her test. She was pretty much stealing from the Hokage. Now this?!
It was too much!
Something inside her snapped.
The itch ignited into a fiery flame of fury.
He had killed her father and mother…their father and mother.
‘HOW DARE HE?!’
“HOW FUCKING DARE HE?!!”
~*~
Sarutobi was startled when Kyoko suddenly came storming into his office close to midnight. Her face was ablaze with such raw anger that the Sandaime actually tensed in his chair, eyes locked on her face.
“You knew didn’t you?!” She yelled as she came to a stop in front of his desk, arms jutting out beside her. Her one hand was clutching two very crumpled balls of paper.
“Knew?” Sarutobi blinked, watching her carefully.
Her hackles seemed to rise, like an angry cat.
“YOU KNEW I WAS RELATED TO THAT DEMON!” She yelled, veering her arm back and throwing the paper balls at the Sandaime.
They landed on his desk, bouncing slightly, while Sarutobi frowned at her behaviour. She was never this ill-tempered before.
“What on Earth are y—“ Sarutobi started before his eyes widened as what she was actually saying sunk into his head.
Related? Demon?
She couldn’t mean…
He un-crumpled the wads of paper on his desk swiftly, the strong feel of the paper telling him that it wasn’t just an ordinary document. The writing became visible to him as he smoothed them out on his desk, the fancy design of the birth certificates becoming familiar to his old eyes.
This was the only proof in all of Konoha that showed that Kyoko and Naruto were related. The only proof…and Kyoko had seen it.
“Naruto then…” Sarutobi sighed in realization as Kyoko fumed in front of him. He could already tell from her behaviour what her reaction to this information was.
“Why hadn’t anyone told me?!” She yelled as she put her hands on the surface of his desk, Sarutobi watching her warily. Angry, people were usually very unpredictable people.
“It was the council’s decision.” Sarutobi explained calmly, his voice soothing, hoping to placate the child in front of him. “They wanted to separate the two of you to keep you safe.”
“I have a right to know if I’m related to a demon!” She continued, ignoring the Hokage’s actions.
Something inside of Sarutobi twitched.
No one called Naruto a demon in front of him.
His firm gaze locked with hers and her fingers twitched atop his desk.
“Naruto is not a demon.” He replied slowly, his voice deliberately clipped. “And you will not call him such in my presence ever again.” He warned, straightening in his seat and towering over the blond, even though she was still standing.
Despite all the anger boiling over inside her, she heeded the Sandaime’s warning without even thinking about it. She took a step away from the desk subconsciously.
“But he is!” She insisted after a split second. “He’s the Kyuubi no Kitsune!”
Sarutobi glared at the accusation, but deep inside, another part of him felt disheartened. Naruto’s own sister had been misinformed about him.
Was convinced of a lie.
Thought him a demon.
“He is not the Kyuubi.” He started, eyes gleaming. “Naruto is, and will continue to be, 100% human. Your father…Naruto’s father, sealed the Kyuubi inside of Naruto twelve years ago in order to save the Village. He is not, in any way, the Kyuubi. Only it’s jailor.” Sarutobi explained sternly, ignoring the way Kyoko bristled when he mentioned Minato being Naruto’s father as well.
“That’s a lie!” Kyoko protested loudly, the words coming out like a snarl. Hari had told her he wasn’t human. She had seen him kill two people!
“Everyone in the Village calls him a de—it!” Kyoko started, switching her word swiftly as she remembered the Sandaime’s warning. If everyone called him a demon, it had to be true!
Sarutobi narrowed his eyes at her. “The people in the Village are blinded by grief and anger. They see Naruto as an outlet for their anger and suffering. Because of this, logic is useless on them.”
“But you are his sister.” He spoke, his eyes softening a fraction as he looked at her. It was sympathy he was portraying…but it wasn’t directed at her.
“You should open your eyes to the logic laid out before you.”
She opened her mouth to continue harshly when he cut her off.
“If you go look on Naruto’s stomach when he moulds chakra, you’ll see a seal. A seal holding back the Kyuubi.” Sarutobi explained slowly. “If he truly was the Kyuubi, he wouldn’t have such a thing.”
“Maybe he’s using it to hide his power.” She retorted.
“Why would a demon want that…if that’s truly what he is?” Sarutobi questioned. “Wouldn’t a demon want all the power they could get?”
Kyoko made an angry noise in her throat when Sarutobi blinked, noticing for the first time, the scroll strapped to her back.
“Kyoko…what are you doing with that?” He asked cautiously.
Kyoko started, derailed by this sudden change in conversation.
She blinked before the anger on her face slowly melted, transforming into realization.
Then…she stiffened, her eyes shooting behind her as a hand absently touched the scroll.
“Uh….” She stammered uselessly, at a loss for words. Crap! She totally forgot about the damn scroll! How much time had she spent talking to the Hokage instead of practicing the jutsu?
Was Mizuki waiting for her at the training ground already?
Maybe if she used a smoke bomb she could sneak away quickly. No way, he was the Hokage. He would be able to sense her chakra through all the smoke.
Besides, how suspicious would that make her look? Damn!
What’s a good excuse? Damnit! Damnit, damnit!
“Kyoko…” Sarutobi said, his voice lowering ever so slightly. It was a tone that automatically let her know she was in trouble.
“What are you doing with that scroll?” He repeated, his eyes drilling holes in her head. She tried to avoid the look by looking at the aforementioned scroll, pretending to be thinking of an answer while actually considering how much shit she was in.
She, technically, had already seen the hand signs for one of the jutsus. She remembered them…mostly. Maybe Mizuki didn’t need the scroll. Maybe he just needed to see her perform the jutsu.
How important could the scroll be anyways? Right?
“I…uh…” She continued before making the mistake of looking back at him.
She met his gaze and she crumbled.
“Mizuki-sensei told me that if I learned a jutsu from this scroll and then gave the scroll to him, he would let me graduate.” She confessed, having the good grace to actually look a tad sheepish.
Sarutobi frowned deeply at this news.
“Where were you supposed to give Mizuki the scroll?” He asked, rising up from his desk for the first time since Kyoko got here. It set her on edge, making her tense up. What was he going to do?
“Training ground six.” She relayed, her eyes watching his every movement. She had just been in his office, yelling at him, the Hokage. If he so much as made any move towards her, she was fleeing.
She’d probably be caught, but she would still try.
Oblivious to her state of being, Sarutobi continued to slowly walk out from behind his desk. “I’m afraid, Kyoko, that I’ll need that scroll back. No matter what Mizuki told you, you’ll have to go back and graduate from the Academy like everyone else. The one who decides who graduates to Genin, is Iruka, not Mizuki.” He explained calmly.
She fell silent while he held his hand out towards her, waiting for the scroll.
Her brow furrowed, lips puckering in mild confusion.
“But then…why did Mizuki tell me I could graduate if I got the scroll?” She started, befuddled. Her eyes then lit in realization, her mouth forming a small ‘o’ as she looked back at the scroll behind her.
‘So I really am stealing.’ Her thoughts realized, confirming her earlier doubts from before. Her gaze flickered back to the old man before she reluctantly slipped the scroll off from over her shoulders, seeing no other way out of this now that she was caught.
Anything that involved her escaping would most likely get her arrested.
She handed the scroll to Sarutobi, the elderly man nodding at her course of action.
“Mizuki will be taken care of. I suggest you go home now Kyoko.” He advised as he placed the scroll on top of his desk, the rather large scroll taking up a good portion of the surface.
Kyoko frowned, nodding curtly before leaving the office. She had someone else she wanted to see.
~*~
Sasuke’s brow furrowed, his eyes cracking open as the front door shook in its hinges.
Someone was banging on the door.
Loudly.
He glared at Naruto’s ceiling above him, sitting up on the couch that he was currently residing on. Silently, he willed whoever was on the other side of the door to combust into flames.
“Nngh.” Naruto grumbled as he stumbled out of his room, woken up by the noise.
Surprising, seeing how Naruto could usually sleep through a war and not know about it.
His eyes were still sealed shut with sleep, giving him the appearance of the walking dead as he stumbled out of his bedroom, nearly tripping over his pyjamas.
“Are you gonna get that?” The blond yawned, swaying where he stood in the middle of the apartment.
“It’s you’re apartment.” Sasuke snapped grumpily. It was his apartment, so whoever was here was here because they came to see him. It was his crap that was disrupting their sleep! He should deal with it.
Naruto opened his eyes enough to send Sasuke a glare, but it paled in comparison to the one Sasuke returned it with.
Naruto trudged over to the door, curse words prepared on his tongue as he grasped the handle of the door and opened it with a rough jerk.
He swallowed his words as his sleepy brain registered who was in front of him.
He blinked before wiping at his eye with the back of his hand sleepily. “Kyoko?” The hell was she doing here? She hadn’t been to his house in four years. And if his brain was fully awake, he would note that it was odd for her to even be close to him.
The blond Namikaze still had her hand raised in the air from where it was about to connect with the wood of his door. Her blue eyes locked onto his face and she stood frozen, almost as if out of habit.
Now that she was face to face with him, the family resemblance was much more striking and prominent. She almost staggered under the weight of it.
Then the raw anger from the Hokage tower came flooding back to her.
Her eyes narrowed, blazing as her lips pulled back in a growl.
This was the boy who had killed her parents! The Kyuubi! And he was supposed to be her brother?!
Naruto practically choked on air as Kyoko tackled him, all the air gushing out of his lungs as they crashed to the ground, his skull hitting the ground with a painful thud. The sound made Sasuke perk his head up, blinking once as he turned his head to look at the door.
Naruto’s brain instantly switched onto alert as his childhood instincts screamed danger. Run! Get away! Fight!
He rolled out from underneath her, pushing her off and to the side as he scrambled to his feet. When she tackled his back this time, the two rolled on the ground, rolling further into the apartment.
Sasuke jumped to his feet as Kyoko sat on top of Naruto’s stomach, her hands wrapping around Naruto’s neck. “I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!” She cried as Naruto began coughing, bringing his hands up to try and pry off her hands.
He had killed her parents! It was because of him she was an orphan! And he probably knew and just gallivanted about as if he didn’t care!
All her fear of the Kyuubi from her childhood converted to anger, releasing in this single outlet that she had found. It was finally pouring out, verbalizing itself. She hated him!
Sasuke was quick to take action, surprising the female when he wrapped his arms around her torso and attempted to heft her off the other male. Not the best strategy, but he was still partially asleep and it was what he could come up with off such short notice.
“Kyoko…what are you….doing?” Naruto managed to wheeze, fighting for air while Sasuke struggled to get the female to release her death hold on the blond.
“Did you know?” Kyoko whispered, her voice cutting through the commotion. “Did you know?!” She repeated, snapping the question out harshly this time as she brought his head up, thudding it against the floor below.
“Know what?” Naruto breathed as he cracked open one eye to look at her. Hitting the floor honestly didn’t hurt that much. It was the lack of air that was getting to him.
She seemed to bristle at his question, but she thankfully didn’t hit him against the floor again.
“That we’re twins!” She yelled as she freed one hand from his throat and veered her fist back. She jerked violently as a Sasuke released one hand from her torso, catching her fist and stopping its descent. She grunted as she tried to get her fist out of Sasuke’s hold, but it was to no avail.
“We’re…we’re what…?” Naruto choked, forcing Kyoko to whip her head back to look at him.
His eyes were huge and he looked a little dazed. Kyoko opened her mouth to continue yelling when something caught her eye.
Something black on Naruto’s stomach.
She went rigid as her gaze flickered to his abdomen that she was seated on. Naruto’s shirt had rose up when the two had rolled on the ground, his pyjama top piled up by his chest, leaving his stomach bare.
The intricate design of a spiral seal looked up at her, swirling around his belly button.
“If you go look on Naruto’s stomach when he moulds chakra, you’ll see a seal. A seal holding back the Kyuubi.” Sarutobi explained slowly. “If he truly was the Kyuubi, he wouldn’t have such a thing.”
Naruto took in a huge gulp of air as Kyoko’s grip on his throat fell loose. Air! Oh dear lord, air! He shook as he coughed, filling his lungs with the pleasant oxygen.
Did that mean…was Naruto…human?
Her head swam, throbbing as it felt like it was going to explode. She didn’t know! What was going on?! Was Hari right, or was the Hokage right? Multiple emotions filled her as her thoughts pushed against each other, overwhelming her.
Her mentality broke.
A watery sob broke through the air.
The two males stilled, Naruto blinking in surprise before his eyes widened in shock, starring up at the female above him.
Tears streamed down Kyoko’s face, the female trembling as she blinked rapidly, trying to dismiss the liquid falling from her eyes. Her teeth were still grit together, but her face had seemed to have collapsed, showing pain and sorrow instead of the raw anger it had portrayed.
Her fist shook in Sasuke’s grasp, the Uchiha easing his hold ever so slightly at the change of demeanour.
Why is everything around me changing? First Hari’s gone! Then Naruto is my brother, and then apparently isn’t the Kyuubi! Was everything I was told a lie? What isn’t true and what is? Who should I believe? What’s going on? I don’t know anymore! I just want everything back the way it was!’
She shook her head, fighting to stop the tears as all different emotions swirled around in her body, making her chest feel constricted and heavy. They were building up before her body couldn’t take it anymore.
Then…she just gave up. She bent her head forward, Naruto making the smallest noises of surprise as her forehead rested on his chest. As if in slow motion, Sasuke let her go, her hands seeming to forget about whatever violent act they had been about to carry out and balling into Naruto’s shirt.
And she cried.
She sobbed like a child into Naruto’s shirt, the Uzumaki sending the Uchiha a clearly startled and confused look as he continued to lay sprawled out below her.
Not knowing what to do when someone who was attacking you was suddenly using you for comfort when they began crying, Naruto awkwardly placed a hand on her back.
~*~
Kyoko had cried for a good ten minutes, soaking the front of Naruto’s shirt while Naruto began to lose feeling in his limbs.
When Kyoko seemed to come back to herself, they could finally see what they had failed to see because of the anger consuming her.
She was an emotional train wreck.
She couldn’t even bring herself to conjure up any emotions at the moment. The cry that she had just displayed must’ve been much more exhausting then the boys thought because she seemed way more mellow now then she had been in a really long time.
At least, considering that she was around Naruto.
“Kyoko…what’s going on?” Sasuke asked, having realized that he wouldn’t be getting any sleep tonight. The female had taken a seat on his makeshift bed, a bowl of instant ramen in her hands while the two males stood in front of her.
She starred at the ramen in her hands, her eyes looking tired, red and puffy.
“”I was in the Hokage tower,” She started as she took the chopsticks in her other hand and idly stirred the noodles in the cup. “When I saw my birth certificate in a filing room.”
“I was looking through other peoples out of curiosity and I had picked up Naruto’s. On his birth certificate…were my parents’ names.” She explained quietly. “Then I realized, how much we look alike.”
At this Sasuke looked between the two and Naruto pulled on a strand of his hair as if in a silent question.
“Holy son of a…” Sasuke muttered as he looked between the two. “Dobe, sit next to her.”
For once, Naruto quietly complied to Sasuke’s command, seating himself next to the female who tensed at his presence, but otherwise did nothing. She was too exhausted to care at the moment.
Sasuke felt like a moron for not noticing the similarities sooner.
“And so…I got angry! I was so mad!” She explained, her grip on the ramen cup tightening so her nails bit into the Styrofoam. Her tone changed, spiking momentarily while Naruto frowned.
“Why?”
Her head bowed, her shoulders hunching up. What did she say? What did she really know now? Who was right? Hari and the Villagers? Or the Hokage?
“I…” She started softly, before stopping and changing her answer.
“Ask the Hokage.” She advised.
~*~
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Chapter notes: Disclaimer: I don’t own Naruto
Authoress Note: Wow, it’s amazing how many times I had to redo this chapter because it didn’t turn out like I envisioned it. But I worked overtime to get this out for you guys so I hope it’s alright…it was a little rushed.