A/N: Only excuse is lack of inspiraiton, how about some love?

Chapter 2: wind pushes the fallen tree, trampling the samplings

If Kaede's previous reasons for disliking the blonde menace that was her biological twin weren't adequate, she was certain that this display in front of her was enough.

It was their shared first birthday and she could already feel a headache forming. Not that she particularly minded the overly enthusiastic party planning or the decorations that overflowed the room, but her dearest brother was proving to irritate her beyond her limits.

He was being extremely fussy and prone to outbursts of tears and screeching. Nothing new but today seemed like a day that she cold catch a break from all the crying. Kaede honestly felt bad for her parents as they struggled with all the party preparations and dealing with a very distraught baby. The birthday banner was strung up crooked and the other baby in the room was only helping to stress their parents doubly.

Unlike the blonde menace, she had a sense to give their parents a break. Naruto refused to stop whining even when being held by Kushina. Kaede was half prepared t knock some sense into him when he finally ceased his tantrum.

The sense of relief was palpable with Kushina and Minato as they were given a moment of peace. Turning to Minato, Kushina asked, "Is it almost time for everyone to arrive?"

The older blonde, whose golden locks were akin to wisps of sunlight, looked at the clock, "In thirty minutes dear. Let's get the two birthday babies ready." With that, Minato bent over and scooped Kaede up from the floor. Grumbling, she idly played with the locks of yellow hair as she was sentenced to another mortifying round of dress up due to her current status of age.

She was dressed in a small, lavender kimono with light pink highlights. It was comfortable and not too restraining so Kaede was fine with it. The annoyance was wearing a dark blue kimono with light green highlights. If she ignored who was wearing it, it was a pretty sight.

The guest arrived not long after, filling in like sardines. Clan heads, friends of the parents, the hokage, some drooling babies, nothing special. The gifts were a pleasure for both Kaede and the menace. With a lot of people, many presents were brought as well.

There were rubber kuani's and shurikan, toddler clothes, sugary treats, ninja propaganda books for children, stuff that was pretty useless for the most part.

Unfortunately, being a twin, many of the gifts were a two for one deal, meaning they were for both her and the annoyance.

Kaede wanted to complain about this discrimination against twin-born, but even her advanced vocabulary could not express such a thing. It is not like the word for share came up often. Kaede was quite certain that she said something along the lines of "no same". No one got her meaning.

Ninjas, she disappointingly thought, can't even put those deduction skills to use with a freaking baby! Okay so Kaede was a bit bitter about that, but she could never eloquently voice her logical hatred of her twin.

She couldn't even recognize the future clan head as babies since most of them had similar hair colors. At least the blonde menace was very distinguishable with that golden hair. Same for Kaede with her deep crimson threads.

The red hair was something Kaede was fond of from the start. Despite being on her at all times, her hair was memorizing to her.

Shaking her head to rid her mind of the thought tangent, Kaede stared back at a drooling face inches from her own.

"Wyyaahhh!" SHOVE. The face, along with it's attached body fell backwards. It was only when the offending baby began wailing did Kaede notice the red triangle markings on the baby's cheeks. Normally Kaede would have actually tried processing that, but she was too bristled and upset to care at the moment.

Urgh, the brat almost drooled on her! Kaede scrunched up her face in disgust and diverted her forming glare at the offending person. No one could protest at her violent act this time, the kid had it coming. Her attacker-turned-victim still wailed on.

That was when a muscular (hey can you blame Kaede for noticing) woman with the same markings picked up the younger Kiba.

Unlike the comforting gestures and soothing words Kushina used on Naruto, the Inuzuka clan matriarch distracted her baby by making Kiba laugh. It actually worked quite fast.

A boisterous laugh from Tsume scared the daylights out of Kaede, "Shina, Nato, your kid is a strong spirit already. You must be proud of this brat!" Huh, Kaede didn't really pay attention to what anyone thought of her. This should be interesting.

"Now Kaede you shouldn't shove, it's not nice." Minato chided me in a exasperated manner. Though there was not much force behind that, Kaede made it clear that she did not care.

Kushina on the other hand, "We sure are Tsume! Kaede is just like me! Is it because of the looks inherited from me?" She adopted a thoughtful expression, while Tsume and Minato just 't blame them, that was a cute look on Kaede's parent. Kaede'd like to think that she inherited that utter adorableness as well because she sure wasn't getting it from her previous life.

Kaede swore that if they tried arranging her to marry anyone, she was defecting just for that. Or exited this life. Hmm a bit morbid of a thought for this early in her life as Kaede.

But she really shouldn't expect so much from an ancient civilization as this world. She was still expecting to have to take drastic measures to escape if all the horrible, savage customs were realized in this world she found herself in.

It was not her fault; the world pushed in her one direction, so she would end up trampling something when falling a different way.

A/N: Just some small hints and I had to get something out or this story will never continue :/

Any predictions? Thoughts? Criticism?

Originally published: August 2 2017