6 Loss

As a clan head, Toka had to stay in the village so that she could participate in the war meetings. It was nice for Nawaki to at least have his mom around. Tsunade and Tetsuya were constantly out on missions and participating in the battles.

On the bright side, everything at the academy was going well. On the second day of the academy, an unfamiliar face joined the class. Nawaki thought, 'So Kensho, looks like someone moved up to our class.' Kensho chuckled and said, "Wait until you find out who it is!" Nawaki started to think. As he thought, their teacher entered the room. "Ohayo. My name is Hoki Yuna. I will be your sensei throughout the academy. We have one student joining us from group two. Please stand up." The unfamiliar guys stood up. He wore a gray jacket and navy blue pants. His unruly blonde hair and blue eyes were features that set him apart from everyone else. He then spoke up, "Hi everyone, my name is Namikaze Minato. I look forward to learning with you all." Minato then sat back down. 'Holy shit, I'm classmates with the fourth hokage. This should be fun!' Nawaki thought as he could hear Kensho laughing in his head.

Similar to his approach with Fugaku, Nawaki asked Minato to join their training group and he accepted. Weeks flew by as they trained and grew stronger together. Occasionally, Tobirama would stop by and help them with their training. However, this happened less and less as the war raged on. One day, the trio were meditating and practicing their chakra control. They had done a lot of sparring and ninjutsu practice recently so they decided that it was also important to train their minds through relaxation. When it started to get dark, Nawaki opened his eyes and said, "Hey guys, let's be done for the day. I'm hungry and I want to get a lot of sleep tonight." Turning to look at each other, Fugaku and Minato laughed. Fugaku then said, "Oh Nawaki, dropping out so soon?" They both laughed again as they teased Nawaki. Nawaki shrugged and said, "Eh, I��m just not feeling it today. I'll see you guys tomorrow at the academy, okay?" Minato and Fugaku nodded. "Goodnight." "Goodnight, take care." Fugaku and Minato said their goodbyes as they walked out of the grounds together. Nawaki turned and yawned as he headed back towards his house.

He was not being completely honest with his reasoning for ending their training early today. For some reason, since he arrived at the Senju grounds, he could sense something was off. It felt as if the chakra signatures of the people in his house and the general flow of nature energy was disturbed. As he entered the house and walked towards the kitchen, he could see Toka sitting at the table with an empty bottle of sake in front of her. Nawaki was now nervous. As he tried to figure out what happened, he poured a glass of water and set it down in front of Toka. She noticed the glass and picked it up. Quickly, she drank the whole glass of water and sighed. Nawaki now knew that something was wrong. Sitting down, he asked, "Okaa-san, what happened?" Toka lifted her head and looked at Nawaki. He could now see that she had been crying as her eyes were red and her face was slightly swollen. Suddenly she started crying again. As she did, Nawake got up from his chair and hugged Toka. In her embrace, he noticed a letter on the table that had the Hokage's seal on it. As he scanned through the letter he could not believe what he was reading. As he finished reading it, he began to cry as well. As both mother and son cried, they hugged each other tight and comforted each other. As they embraced each other, Kensho said, "I am sorry for your loss. I am sure that he died a valiant death. He will be remembered." Hearing this, Nawaki thought, 'Thank you Kensho. I appreciate it.'

After a few days, his funeral was held in the Konoha Cemetery. It was a miserable day. Not a spec of sun could be felt as the rain poured down. As soon as the service ended, Nawaki flickered away towards the exit. Seeing him, Minato and Fugaku chased after him. Catching up to him, they walked next to him matching his pace. As the trio walked aimlessly through the streets of Konoha, Fugaku turned to Nawaki and said, "Even though I haven't lost a parent, I understand your pain. Just remember the type of man he was and honor his memory. Get stronger so you can protect those close to you. Make it so that they never have to feel this pain." Nodding, Minato added, "Nawaki, we are here to help you through this. How about we go get something to eat!" Hearing this, Nawaki perked up. They decided on Yakiniku Q. The three of them have grown very close as of late. They were inseparable and trained together almost every day. Even their parents became friendly since their children were together a lot. However, some of the villagers thought it strange that an Uchiha and Senju were so close. It did not seem to bother them though. After they enjoyed their meal, they split up and headed home.

A few more weeks passed and Nawaki started acting like his normal self again. However, something interesting then happened at the academy. Standing at the front of the class, Yuna said, "Hello everyone. Today we are welcoming a transfer student." A red headed girl walked into the classroom. "Hello. My name is Uzumaki Kushina." As she said this, Minato's face lit up. Seeing this, Fugaku and Nawaki looked at each other and grinned. Kushina took her seat and class went on as usual. When class was over, the usual trio flew out the door. Once they exited the academy building, Fugaku and Nawaki looked at each other and grinned. Fugaku turned to Minato and said, "Ooooooh, somebody has a crush." Hearing this, Minato's eyes widened and his face went red. Immediately he said, "No, I don't. Why would you think that?" Nawaki laughed and replied, "Oh Minato, we both saw the way you looked at Kushina when she walked into the classroom hehe." Embarrassed, Minato covered his face and said, "Okay, so maybe I like Kushina. What of it?" Nawaki and Fugaku looked at each other before laughing. Fugaku then said, "Oh Minato, we are just teasing you. She is definitely cute. Maybe you should have a go!" Nawaki laughed with Fugaku and Minato said nothing. They continued to walk towards the Senju grounds.

As the trio entered the grounds, Nawaki signaled to them and they scattered. Each of them quickly got into a hiding spot. While they hid, they all watched the entrance as Kushina walked in and approached the Senju estate. Fugaku and Nawaki immediately looked at each other and did their best to hold in their laughter. Meanwhile, Minato went even more red in the face and stayed silent. Once Kushina entered the Senju estate, the three of them flickered back to the path and faced each other. Nawaki broke the ice, "Sooo, are we just gonna sit here or are we gonna find out why she is in my house?" The three looked at each other, nodded, and then flickered off towards the Senju estate.

Entering the house, the trio did their best to eliminate their presence as they tracked Kushina. As they approached the room that she was in, Nawaki realized that she was in Mito's room. Suddenly, Mito called out, "So, how long are you boys going to sit outside? Wanna come in?" The three looked at each other and shrugged as they entered Mito's room. Kushina could be seen sitting on the end of Mito's bed. The resemblance between them was uncanny. The red hair, the slender physique, they were like the same person from different times. Mito faced the boys and said, "Since when were you three so good at hiding your presence? If it weren't for my blood, I wouldn't have realized that you were there." She smiled as the boys stayed silent. Suddenly, Fugaku asked, "Mito-sama, you and Kushina are both from the Uzumaki clan right?" Mito smiled and replied, "Yes. That is right. Maybe I should tell you guys a bit about our clan. For a long time, the Uzumaki and Senju clans had a close relationship. We often married between our clans. When the Senju and Uchiha clans settled and formed Konohagakure, we followed suit. The Uzumaki clan formed Uzushiogakure. Most of the people there are from our clan but there are many others as well. Our clan specializes in fuinjutsu. I was actually going to start teaching some of that to Kushina. Would you boys like to join?" Minato's eyes lit up at the chance to spend more time with Kushina. Nawaki's eyes also lit up but for a different reason. From his knowledge, he knew that fuinjutsu was extremely useful so he definitely wanted to learn it. Fugaku, seeing as his two friends were interested, said, "We would be happy to join you to learn fuinjutsu. Thank you Mito-sama."

The first step to learning fuinjutsu was getting accustomed to writing kanji. After a few hours of that, Kushina said, "Thank you Mito-sama, I need to go home now. I'll come back in a few days so see you then!" Kushina turned to leave. As she walked out, Nawaki and Fugaku looked to Minato. Getting the message, Minato stood up and thanked Mito for the lesson as he quickly left. Having figured out what happened, Mito, Fugaku, and Nawaki all looked at each other and laughed. Mito then said, "Ah, young love. I remember when I first met Hashirama. He really was something special. Would you two like to wrap it up for today and have some tea?" Fugaku and Nawaki both nodded and the three of them left towards the kitchen. After enjoying some tea, Fugaku stood up and said, "Thank you for today Mito-sama, I look forward to learning from you again." "Later Fugaku." "See you tomorrow Nawaki." After their goodbyes, Fugaku went home leaving Mito and Nawaki in the kitchen. As they both got up, Nawaki walked Mito back to her bedroom. Mito turned to Nawaki and said, "You have some great friends. They will prove to be great allies in battle. Keep them close and look out for them." The both smiled and Mito returned to her room. After this, Nawaki went to his own room to get into bed for the night. After washing up, he wished Kensho goodnight and decided to sleep.