Of Darkness, Tears, and Villages

Chapter One: Children of the Fourth

14 Years Earlier; Namikaze Compound:

...:::...

"Mommy! I successfully did the Substitution Technique!" a childish, feminine voice squealed, either in delight or surprise. "Can I enter the Ninja Academy, mommy? Please?" she lengthened the last syllable, giving her best puppy-dog look.

"When you're older, Mi," The Red Death, Uzumaki Kushina, smiled fondly at her only daughter and ruffled her scarlet red hair, causing the younger girl to pout. "Hm, how's your clone technique coming?"

"It's so hard, okaasan!" The younger of the two whined. "It always looks like a sleepy zombie!"

Ah. Too much chakra. Of course, the Nine-Tailed Fox's chakra, the former jinchuuriki thought. "How about I teach you another technique?" she smiled. "Which is somewhat the same to the clone technique, but much easier,"

"Really?! What is it?" Kushina's daughter was practically jumping off in excitement, stars beaming off her blue eyes.

"It's called," The older of the two females paused as she made the necessary handsign and yelled, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Technique)!"

Four Kushina's appeared, nearly perfect with a few flaws. "Try it, Mishi." Kushina instructed.

Uzumaki-Namikaze Mishi imitated her mother's movements, yelling out the same jutsu. However, two Mishi's appeared with a rather loud 'poof' and a white cloud. The girl herself smirked, but it faded into a genuine smile, seeing her mother's proud look.

"Great job, Mi!" Kushina praised. "It took me a week to master that technique!"

"Thanks, mom!" Mishi beamed at her mother before looking somewhat hesitant as she spotted the angle of the sun. "Um, Mom, it's, uh, lunchtime already?" she backed away as a shocked and enraged expression appeared on her mother's face.

"Okay, then, sweetheart," Kushina smiled sweetly. "I'll cook lunch. For the meanwhile, can you alert of the boys?"

"Sure, mommy!"

...:::...

On the other side of the Namikaze Compund, the Yellow Flash, Namikaze Minato, watched with keen interest as his oldest son pull out one of his treasured techniques: Rasengan. However, if it took him three years to master, his son would also have a hard time mastering it as well.

A spinning blue ball—in naked eyes—formed within the young lad's hand, sweating profusely as a large amount of chakra was depleted from him. Needless to say, the incomplete Rasengan disappeared from existence with a loud 'poof'.

Uzumaki-Namikaze Kato lay on the ground, panting heavily. His father simply grinned a large grin at him and ruffled his hair, disheveling the blond strands—if it wasn't messy in the first place—earning a groan of annoyance.

"Dad, why?" Kato groaned as he tried to fix his hair. The keyword is tried, as his blond hair stuck up in all directions—like it had always been.

"Hm? 'Cause I felt like it," The Yondaime Hokage simply answered with a mischievous glint in both of his eyes, earning a giant drop of sweat on his son's forehead. Kato gave him the 'what the hell' look before hoisting himself up from the awkward position he was in.

"We need to go before mom gets on a rampage," Kato mumbled under his breath, earning a brief expression of panic flashing on his father's face as he started to walk towards the dining room.