Kumiko nodded and took the headband back to look at it. "Very well. As you know, my brother and I spent a great majority of our lives in Amegakure with our father, learning to become ninja in that academy. Neither of us told you this, but when we were in the academy, Akihiko and I were nothing like what we were now." This was the single bit of information that Akihiko and Kumiko didn't tell Neji or Hibiki. But because Neji was close enough to the two of them, he would be able to hear it now. It would be no time at all before Akihiko trusted Hibiki enough to tell him why the Konoha headbands meant a lot to them.
"Before the death of our father, Akihiko was more lively and, well, an idiot. He loved to pull pranks and just... wasn't the Akihiko you know today. If he behaved the way he was before, you wouldn't even recognize him. I was the same way, but not as much as him. He and I never took our training seriously, more often trying to escape the instructor than trying to learn. One day, our father learned about this and talked to us..."
-Flashback-
Akihiko and Kumiko were roughly about the ages of 10, some months before the battle occurred. Their father, Akio, looked down at them with some disappointment in his ocean blue eyes. He received word about Akihiko's and Kumiko's behavior in the academy, which wasn't at all what he was hoping for from his children. The older man pulled up a chair and sat down across from them, his eyes going from Akihiko's then to Kumiko's.
"Why aren't you both taking the academy as seriously as you should be?" Akio asked the both of them, though Akihiko was the one to sigh.
"It's so boring! Learning about all this 'how Chakra works' nonsense, this and this, that and that, blah blah blah! Not like we need to know how it works, just how to use it! Super cool jutsus don't depend on how well I know Chakra, just show me the good stuff! Right Kumi?"
"Right!" Kumiko agreed instantly with her brother, her small and chubby hands in fists and a determined smile on her face.
Akio sighed at this. They had the spirit and the determination to learn, but they were selective about what they chose to pay attention to. "The fundamentals of Chakra is just as important as learning how to use it. You see, different Chakra natures are needed and how it works keeps you from losing a a limb, one or more of your senses, or dying. Your instructors are trying to teach you the importance of it so that you just don't try to learn it without caution."
"Huh? But isn't all Chakra the same?" Akihiko asked his dad, sitting up on the couch.
"No. You've seen me fight before, and you've seen that a great majority of my techniques include water. That's because my Chakra nature is water, and my second nature is wind. I can't learn fire or earth Ninjutsu or else I'll end up seriously injuring myself."
"Wooow... That's really dumb..." Kumiko said and slumped back into the couch, "Learning jutsu itself is hard enough, now we have a limit too? Chakra is Chakra, right? Why can't it just be the same for everyone and everyone can learn jutsu so long as they can do it?"
"That question will be answered in the academy, if you two start paying attention, you'll learn." Akio told the both of them, chuckling softly when the two slumped into the couch and gave a groan at the idea of learning.
"Ugh! Learning... All for a stupid protector! Can't we be just as good without them?" Akihiko groaned, looking at his father again.
"You can, but here's the thing." He removed his own to show it to his son and daughter, "This forehead protector symbolizes your loyalty to the village. It shows that you two are powerful enough to graduate from the academy and are on the path to something bigger in the ninja world. This "stupid protector" is the first step to becoming a great shinobi and kunoichi. Once you get this, you'll be one step closer to achieving greatness." He tied the protector around his forehead again, "Promise me you'll at least try to pay attention, okay? I want you both to grow up and become strong ninja, or at least get a headband... That is going to differentiate you from the regular villagers and a respectable ninja. At this rate, you'll be just another villager in Amegakure. Let me see you wearing those headbands one day. Promise?"
"We promise..." The twins said in unison.
Months later, the two looked over the gravestone with "Uzumaki Akio" engraved into it while their aunt Yoshiko was packing up the last of their belongings to take them to Konohagakure. The heavy, cold rain beat against the fabrics of their umbrellas and the soft moisture of the mud beneath their rain boots. The only warmth the two received were the hot tears that streamed down their round cheeks, dripping off their chin to form with the pure rain water down below. Kumiko's eyes had changed from their beautiful hazel to the metallic purple of the rinnegan. The area around her eyes still somewhat hurt from the sudden adaptation to a new dojutsu her body had to accept, while Akihiko could still be looked at without the other person wondering what was wrong with him.
"...I'm sorry dad..."
Kumiko looked to her brother, a questioning gaze.
"We were so stupid... You were in trouble and we couldn't do anything about it. We never paid attention in the academy, and now... The one time you needed someone there for you... we couldn't help you... We barely know the academy three and can barely use a jutsu without using so much Chakra... We could have saved you, dad... But our incompetence as students... Our stupidity and selfishness created this forsaken path, and you had to pay for it... If we just... I'm sorry dad... I'm so sorry..."
Akihiko reached over and took his sister's hand in his own, Kumiko still listening to his words.
"From now on, things will be different, dad... We'll train harder, we'll work to become the ninja that you want us to become! I don't want to be known across Konohagakure as "The Uzumaki Orphans"! I want our names to bring hope to our allies and fear to our foes! Smiles to our precious people and chills down the spines of our enemies! We'll become the best damn ninja we can be and help bring peace! On your grave, on our lives, and on the headbands we share! ...You wanted us to show you the headbands we earn at the academy, and we can't keep that promise anymore... But the least we can do is use it to remind us of what we're fighting for!"
Kumiko had been looking at the protector after she finished telling the story, running her thumb over the engraving of the Konoha leaf. The whole scene just stuck to her all these years. Not once did Akihiko's words leave her head after that day, and still it stuck to her as clear as day. She couldn't bring herself to cut through the protector and completely cut ties with the village, so instead she just kept it in her cloak. She turned her gaze to Neji again, her rinnegan eye looking at him. "I'm sorry if I bored you, but I want you to give this to him... So he can have a piece of me with him... and to remind him for what he's fighting for." She said, offering him the protector again.
