POV Samui
I remember the day my world fell apart, even though I didn't understand it at the time. My parents were summoned to the Raikage's office. I was only three or four years old. It was normal for me to see my father leave on missions, but this time my mother went with him. When they returned, their faces were a strange mixture of joy and deep sadness that sent shivers down my spine.
They told me they would miss me, that it was all "for the good of the village." The next thing I remember is opening my eyes while an unknown boy was carrying me. I was very scared, but for some reason, the arms of that boy—a little older than me—gave me a sense of security that I couldn't explain.
A few months later, Mabui explained the truth to me: we had been chosen to infiltrate Konoha. The plan was to arrive as a caravan of merchants, but we were attacked. It was that same boy who killed the bandits and brought us to safety.
At first, my heart couldn't accept that my parents had let me go, but the time I spent with Kenji healed everything. He and Maki became my older siblings. Kenji didn't just take care of me; he taught me how to control my chakra, helped me with math, and showed me how to hold a kunai without cutting myself. His kindness made Konoha stop feeling like a prison and start feeling like home.
So when we found out that he knew we were spies, I felt like the ground had disappeared beneath my feet. In books, they say that spies are tortured or killed. I cried in sheer terror, thinking that peace was over. But Kenji just hugged us. He told us we were his family and that no one would touch us.
At that moment, I wanted to hold on to him and never let go, but as always, he got lost in his thoughts, looked at the ceiling with that "I forgot something" expression, and left. I sighed, half relieved and half frustrated. That's Kenji for you.
Mabui read the scroll he left us.
"He says we can stay with him," she murmured with trembling hands.
I didn't need to hear any more. A smile spread across my face and my heart rejoiced. Even though he said we couldn't return to Kumogakure for a long time, I didn't care. My parents were only with me for three years; Kenji has always been with me.
(Years later, when I returned to the Cloud as an adult woman, I learned that my parents had died.
Only my brother Atsui remained. It was strange not to miss them; my home was no longer the land where I was born, but the place where I grew up alongside Kenji).
Back to the present.
Maki sends us to the lab more often. Mabui takes care of logistics and tasks that still give me the chills, like activating the acid seals to dissolve the bandits' bodies. Kenji says we have to get used to it, that the ninja world is worse than what we see now.
As we eat the bento Maki prepared for us, I try to understand his experiments.
"If this works," he tells me as he chews, "no one will be able to leak information, and I'll be much stronger. That's all you need to know, Samui."
I look at him and nod. I don't understand his formulas or theories, but I trust his face and the way he protects me. If he says this is necessary, I'll be by his side to see him succeed.
I'm just amazed at what he says as I look at his face.
While he was explaining, he and I ate from a bento box that Maki made for us.
Mabui was busier with logistics. Kenji had tasked her with making an inventory of everything available, as well as activating the acid seals on the bandits' bodies, which, when activated with a chakra signal, dissolved the bodies after a few seconds.
The first few times I saw it, it was disturbing, but as time went by, Mabui and I got used to such scenes.
According to Kenji, after graduating from the ninja academy and within a few years, we might see worse things, so he insisted that we get used to it right away if we wanted to survive as ninjas.
At the time, I didn't know how to process his words about the cruelty of the world, but time proved him right. When war broke out between the great nations years later, I understood why legends did everything they could to stop conflicts. There is nothing heroic about war; it is horrible, and Kenji knew this before anyone else.
While Konoha was buzzing with the appointment of the new Hokage and the constant movement of troops, Kenji preferred the shadows. He lived locked away in his laboratory or workshop, as if he were building the future within four walls. He only came out for two reasons: to train with Kakashi Hatake and Obito—children his age who seemed to carry the weight of the world on their shoulders—or because Lady Tsunade would show up at home to drag us all to the training ground.
It was funny to hear him talk about her. Kenji always referred to her as a "troublesome woman" or a "damn slug," but I didn't see it that way. I saw an older sister who, in her own brusque way, was terrified that her younger brother would end up as another casualty.
But the worst (or best) was Kushina. Whenever she arrived, she would give us a sweet smile and pat Mabui and me on the head, but she was merciless with Kenji. In the blink of an eye, golden chains would sprout from her back, wrap around him like a package, and drag him back to her house.
It didn't matter that Kenji was a genius; against Kushina's chains, his teleportation technique was useless. Those seals blocked any attempt to escape. Seeing that mature-minded boy with perfect plans losing his temper, kicking and cursing as he was dragged across the floor, was the only time we remembered that, after all, he was still a child.
When I close my eyes and compare that past with the present, I can't help but feel a pang of nostalgia. I miss those days when our only concern was whether Kenji would manage to escape from Kushina or whether Tsunade would make us train until we collapsed.
But in the end, all that time spent on his experiments and being kidnapped by Lady Tsunade and Sister Kushina was what led him to survive the chaos of war.
POV: Mabui
If Samui is the heart of this group, I guess it's up to me to be the head. Or at least, to try to keep Kenji's head from exploding from information overload.
At six years old, my life in Kumogakure already feels like a blurry dream. I remember the cold corridors of the Cloud Academy and the stern voices of my instructors talking to me about "sacrifice" and "duty." But here, in Kenji's lab, duty has a different flavor. It's not something imposed with shouting, but something that comes from watching the back of a child who seems to be carrying the weight of several centuries.
Kenji is an enigma that obsesses me.
While Samui looks at him with adoring eyes, I spend hours reviewing his discards. I pick up the papers he throws on the floor, smooth out the wrinkles in his diagrams, and try to find the logic behind his cross-outs. Sometimes I am left breathless. What he calls "a little experiment," I see as a declaration of war on the laws of the ninja world.
"Mabui, stop overanalyzing," he said yesterday without even looking at me, as he adjusted a seal on his gauntlet. "If you try to understand the 'why' of each variable before seeing the result, you will fall behind."
"Someone has to keep track of your crazy ideas, Kenji-sama," I replied, noting the ink and poison vials we had used up.
He just let out a dry laugh. I like it when he does that. It snaps him out of his "ancient sage" trance and brings him back to reality.
My job isn't just to assist him; it's to be his anchor. Kenji has a tendency to fly too high, to get lost in concepts like "chakra frequency" or "cellular chemistry." My job is to remind him that supplies run out, that bandit bodies need to be dissolved before the smell attracts the ANBU, and that Maki will be angry if we don't come home for dinner.
Sometimes, when I see him arguing with Kushina-san—or rather, when she drags him around with her golden chains—I can't help but smile. It's the only time the numbers in my head calm down. Seeing the great strategist of the shadows being humiliated by a suffocating hug from the redhead reminds me that, despite all his genius, he's still the boy who decided we were his "family" rather than his tools.
But then we return to the lab. The smell of ozone and acid fills the air. Kenji stares into space, and I know he has found another answer. I feel a chill. It's not fear of him, but fear for the world. Because I know that when Kenji finishes perfecting what he has in his hands, the map of the ninja nations we were taught in Kumo will be useless.
(Years later, as his secretary and strategist in the Raikage building, I would understand that my role was never to understand his inventions one hundred percent, but to be the only person capable of organizing the chaos that his genius left in its wake).
A/N:
This is a short chapter that I wanted to write from the perspective of these two characters, mainly to show what they thought of Kenji.
If you think I got something wrong or if you have any suggestions, feel free to comment on the paragraph, leave me a message on my Discord LeoCreepy, or leave a comment on the chapter. Remember that your comments help me a lot to improve.