Sunshine

o n e .

'Hashirama used his Wood Release abilities to produce much of the village's infrastructure. This ability and his ideals were two reasons he was chosen to become the village's leader: the Hokage. However, Madara feared that the Senju would oppress his clan and attempted to gather support to overthrow Hashirama. Madara would plead with his clan to help him in his endeavour. Still, no Uchiha was brave enough to help, forcing him to take on Hashirama by himself. Madara would ultimately be defeated at what would later be called the Valley of the End, where he would meet his end at the hands of Hashirama. As a result of this battle, Konoha would come into the possession of the great weapon known as the Nine-Tails...'

Kumiko frowned as she read through the passage. The way Tenko Shimura had worded his book made it seem as though the Uchiha would've agreed to revolt if they didn't fear Hashirama's strength, but that didn't make sense. From what she knew from her previous watching of the show, Madara had basically been labelled crazy and, later on, stripped of his Uchiha name.

And, she mused as she idly flipped the page, there was a very significant lack of information regarding the Uzumaki clan. It annoyed her because she was sure that the Uzumaki had been very close to the Senju clan. Yet, there was nothing more than a single excerpt about how Mito Uzumaki had been the Hokage's wife. It hadn't even mentioned her status as the first jinchuriki of the nine-tails.

It was annoying, Kumiko thought as she later checked out three books. No matter where she looked, her mother and father's very existence was erased. She had gone through so many different texts regarding the Hokage, and the fourth, Minato Namikaze, was referenced briefly. Instead of a profile picture, his Hokage head was printed beside his file.

Annoying.

Kumiko huffed as she glanced down at the fourth book she had smuggled out of the library; The Hokage's Compendium by Komugi Meruem.

If there was anything about her father, it had to be located in this book. After all, it had to have been in the jonin section for some reason. She couldn't have just checked it out. She knew it would've raised suspicion to whoever it was that checked over her check-outs.

She couldn't find out an S-class secret on a whim. After all, it wouldn't bode very well for the village.

—

Genma Shiranui did not like reminders.

It was why he had stopped dropping by Hoshitari's bar. The asshole knew what those brats would mean to him. He knew that if he were to see them, to talk to them—

Sometimes Genma wondered if his friend was trying to kill him. He knew that what he was doing wasn't healthy. That he was breaking every promise that he had ever made to Minato but damn it, Hatake wasn't interacting with them either, and it wasn't like he was actually obligated to go and see the brats.

He didn't need a reminder of how he failed.

Genma stopped in his tracks at the sight of bright red hair, and, for a moment, he was a kid again, and Kushina Uzumaki seemed like the scariest and prettiest thing to exist. He watched as the smarter of the two Uzumaki pariah's left the village library with four books and a grin.

He didn't need the reminder, but he was almost sure that The Hokage's Compendium was a book that required jonin level access to check-out.

"Okay, kid," He murmured as he changed directions, sealing his grocery bags into a scroll as he went, and began to shadow her, "Let's see where you're going with this."