New Family

Natsume pretended to drown like she saw from the moving pictures in her memories. Once the man safely secured her, she applied chakra to one of her pressure points to knock herself out. Seeing that she was unconscious, the man was more frantic to bring her ashore. Once she made it to shore, the woman came over and checked on her. Seeing the soaked robed she called for her to be brought to the covered cart.

Natsume woke up some time later and felt that her clothes were a bit loose for her. The first thing she did was pretend to panic. Seeing this, the woman next to her patted her chest and soothed her with soft words. "It's okay, you almost drowned. Your clothes were soaked so you're wearing a spare robe."

"N-no my clothes?" Natsume seemed to have difficulty with her words, but the woman seemed to understand.

"They seem very important to you? Don't worry, they are just drying in the sun. Did your mother make it for you?" She smiled at the girl, but Natsume gave a sad smile before nodded lightly. She was on the verge of tears which made the woman realize the situation. "I… lost my daughter. She would be around your age now. If you are willing to come back with us…"

Natsume could tell the woman had a lot of pain in her as well and seeing the nearly drowned Natsume plucked at her heart strings. After learning she was an orphan, she immediately jumped at the chance to adopt. Natsume didn't want to see overly zealous, so she bit her lip and looked away.

"Ah, you don't have to decide now, but let me help dry your clothes and give you a meal?" She realized her attitude was a bit aggressive and pulled back a little. Natsume nodded lightly and even gave her a smile with her eyes. The cart traveled until dark, and a camp was set up. Based on the direction, Natsume could tell it was heading deeper into the Land of Rice Fields.

"My name is Saya, and this is my husband Lee who rescued you." After they stopped, the woman helped Natsume get off the cart and introduced herself and her husband. There were other people in the caravan, but they didn't seem to want anything to do with her. Lee came over with her robes and the scroll that she had hidden.

Natsume wasn't worried about being discovered with the scroll, as all it contained were some 'final words' from her 'parents.' Only a trained shinobi with the right chakra code could decipher the storage scroll. This was another advantage of learning fuinjutsu herself. It instructed her to go to the Land of Rice Fields and meet with her uncle's family if they didn't come back alive. Seeing the seal was broken, it seemed that they had read it.

"Tsume, I apologize but I read your letter. I hope you understand." Lee was and forthright and honest man. After going through her belongings, he felt guilty once he read the letter.

"En, I understand Uncle Lee…" She looked at her robes, specifically the embroidery on the hem and started to tear up. Seeing this, Saya couldn't resist hugging her to comfort her. Lee seemed to understand his wife's feelings and simply left her stuff to her and went to prepare dinner. Natsume was resting beside the fire and overheard the other families talking.

"… I think we should get rid of her; they increased security at the checkpoint."

"That's cruel, but I am afraid you might be right…"

Natsume frowned inwardly. However, Lee stood up for her. "We will adopt her and take responsibility. There will be no problems."

"Ah, I'm sorry Tsume, I know you aren't ready yet…" She was explaining but Natsume hugged her robes and nodded toward Saya.

"Aunty… I'm so glad I found you and Uncle." She implied that they were the family she was looking for, and Saya instantly beamed.

"Oh, my good niece, fate brought us together. I'll take care of you in my sister's stead." She smiled and hugged Natsume. Although she was acting, she could feel the motherly love that was being diverted to her which caused her stomach to turn slightly sour. When Lee walked over with three bowls of meat stew, he looked awkwardly at his wife and 'daughter.'

"Uncle, thank you." She smiled at him and took the bowl. Lee coughed and nodded. He had a hard time with showing emotions, but Natsume could see it on his face. He loved his wife and was happy to see her happy.

"We are family now. Don't thank me." Natsume couldn't resist laughing in joy. Lee was a bit embarrassed at his mushy words and started eating with his head down.

"My old man is like this, don't mind him. Ah, your hair is all messed up, would you let aunty brush it for you?" She had a expectant look on her face. Natsume nodded slightly and caused her to beam in joy. She had planned to use genjutsu to guide these two to accept her quicker but didn't expect such a twist of fate. The war left many families without children, so it wasn't strange.

In the middle of the night, she went around to the other families and placed them under a genjutsu so that they wouldn't reveal her to the checkpoint guards. Because she used her Mangekyou Sharingan for this, only someone if similar dojutsu strength or highly specialized in genjutsu could see the manipulation. It was just a simple altering of reality that made her the biological niece of Lee and Saya.

Then, she quietly slipped back into the arms of her new aunt and took a chance to rest her eyes. The next day, she changed into her original clothes and noticed the holes were repaired. She looked over at Saya but didn't say anything. She hid the scroll in her clothes again and got on the front of the cart. They were being pulled by a large oxen and Natsume found it fascinating.

Soon, they came up to the first checkpoint. Several armed shinobi stopped the caravan in order to search for suspicious people.