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Disclaimer: The following story is a work of fiction, derived from a pre-existing franchise. The author does not have any affiliation or partnership with those who have ownership of the franchise. The author of this story does not own nor have claim to the concept or rights for Naruto, Naruto Shippuden or any other affiliated media. With the exception of Kiyoko Shiranui, Atsuko Shiranui or any other 'original characters' in this work of fiction, the author does not claim to have ownership over the characters. Any use of characters, setting or concept in this story related to the Naruto franchise are used for creative and personal entertainment purposes only and the author of this story does not receive any form of profit (monetary or otherwise) from their use. Any likeness between the characters in this story and persons either living or deceased is completely coincidental.

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Civil Affairs

Chapter 1

Before The Beginning

Atsuko had waited for big brother to be gone on a mission, a long one, before she ran away.

I woke up that morning, paying little attention to the empty twin bed across the room from mine and shuffled into our tiny kitchen. With only a small amount of counter space, chipping white cabinets, an old stove and loud fridge that was threatening to quit – it wasn't much of a kitchen. Big brother had been gone on a mission for the last three weeks and wasn't expected to return for three more. Where he had gone, he wasn't allowed to share.

I vaguely noted the fact that she was absent from the apartment, but that wasn't as uncommon as one might think. Ever since we had graduated from school, Atsuko always seemed to have somewhere else to be. Big brother had guessed one night, while the two of us shared some take-out on our sagging brown couch, that Atsuko was just restless. She didn't have a job yet and suddenly she didn't have the obligation to go to school everyday either. She was anxious to test her limits and new-found freedom from obligation.

He said it was okay and that it was natural – but it wasn't something I personally understood.

We may be identical twins, but Atsuko and I were very, very different people.

I wasn't in the apartment much either, but that was because immediately following graduation I had applied for a position at Konohagakure's Civil Affairs Office. I had been successful and had earned a position in the Immigration Department. So, from 8 in the morning until 6 in the evening, 6 days a week, I was busy at my desk sifting through immigration applications. Sorting them, investigating them, approving them and, yes, often denying them. It was a good job and it paid well, giving me the opportunity to contribute to the cost of our apartment and groceries. It was new for me; big brother had taken care of us since we were very young and had never asked us to contribute financially. But it felt good to finally be able to help him out a bit.

Between the steady hours of my job, Atsuko's flighty behaviour and big brother's constant missions, the apartment was naturally empty. When there was someone there, it was usually me and I was usually alone. So I had paid no mind to her absence, going about my morning routine.

A cup of coffee, a quick shower and I was out the door on time, arriving at work 15 minutes early just as I did every day.

When I got home that night, there was no Atsuko. I assumed she was out with her friends. It wasn't unheard of for her to stay out late, spending big brother's hard-earned money at bars or going out to eat at nice restaurants with her friends. Atsuko had lots of friends, she was a lot better at making them then I was – but she also needed her friends more then I did. While my sister thrived on the constant attention of her peers, I was much more content to be overlooked. I did important work and I knew I was a decent person. That was all I needed.

So, I changed into my bed clothes doing a bit of reading by the dim lighting of my old, bedside lamp. I was lost in the book – a fantasy novel about a world where everyone could summon dragons. By the time I surfaced, it was close to midnight and when I glanced across the room, Atsuko's bed was still empty. That was odd. She never stayed out this late…no matter how much fun she was having. Atsuko once told me that nothing beat the feeling of sleeping in your own bed, so without fail she would come back to it. I marked my spot in the novel and put it aside.

Wondering if she was drunk and had fallen asleep on the couch, I was quick to go out and check the living room. It was empty.

Despite being in my nightgown, I left the apartment and went down to the lobby where the security guard, an elderly retired shinobi, was snoozing. He hadn't seen her since yesterday. My heart began to beat just a little bit faster and I was quick to return to my apartment and change into a pair of pants and a t-shirt.

I was all over Konohagakure, knocking on doors of her friends, checking the bars I knew she liked the most. The most recently she had been seen was yesterday night. With each failed attempt at finding her, my heart would beat just a little bit faster. I gave up shortly after dawn, resolving to go and report her as a missing person and hire a shinobi team to look for her. I didn't have a lot of money, but hopefully I had enough to pay for a search party.

Somehow, maybe exhaustion, I ended up sitting on Atsuko's saggy bed instead of my own, realizing for the first time that she'd made it. Atsuko never made her bed. She was my twin, I should have noticed she was gone…I should have noticed the signs that something was wrong. My gaze drifted down to my feet and there, I noticed there was a corner of a page sticking out from underneath her bed. I picked it up and read it.

After reading the note, I felt many things.

Confusion, a little lonely, maybe a little angry but ultimately, relieved.

In Atsuko's familiar handwriting, there was a letter describing in a surprising amount of detail everything that had been going on with her since our graduation. Things I didn't know anything about. In short, my sister had fallen in love. With both my brother and I so busy, and Atsuko unsuccessfully able to obtain work despite her intelligence, she'd chosen to volunteer at the hospital. There, she had met a young man aspiring to become a doctor. They had grown closer and when he was finally accepted into a Medical Institute in another country (she smartly didn't mention which country), they had decided that they would move there together – as a married couple. She assured me that it had nothing to do with me and that she loved me; a similar note left for our beloved big brother, adding how much she appreciated all he did to raise us.

I love you both so, so much. I'm happy and I want you to be happy too.

I promise I'll come home to see you someday, when I know who I am and you can be proud of me.

With love,

Atsuko

While it was true that sixteen was considered legal age in Konohagakure for civilians, it was still too young to get married in my opinion. In big brother's opinion too, hence why she waited until he was gone to run off. Big brother was a skilled jonin, she and her new husband wouldn't have been able to make it out of the village if he had been around. It didn't take me long to figure out why she hadn't told me about what was going on. My sister and twin she may be, but the truth was I had never been able to keep anything from big brother. It wasn't because I couldn't lie, but I was loyal to him and would have felt the urge to tell him. Atsuko hadn't wanted to put me in that position. It was admirable, in a strange way…that still really hurt.

I went to work still that day, grasping desperately for some normalcy. I coasted through half of my day before realizing my productivity was limited my supervisor called me to her office. She asked why I wasn't at my best and I told her the truth, that my sister had left the village and that I had spent all night looking for her. Despite insisting I was fine to work, she had sent me home. Alone in my suddenly smaller family's apartment.

After that day I went back to my routine, suddenly noticing all the ways that Atsuko's absence affected my life. Despite staying out late, she would try to drag herself out of bed to chatter to me while I got ready for work. Mindless chatter to which I rarely contributed – but that was just how we were. Atsuko was the talkative one, I was the quiet one; it didn't mean that I wasn't listening…or that I wouldn't miss hearing her. Over the weeks immediately following it, I even came to miss her coming home drunk. She'd stagger in, slurring the end of a story she started telling me before she even entered the apartment, not realizing her error. Laughing. 'I knew you'd find that funny, sis! I knew you would!' She'd laugh. Maybe I would have if I'd heard the whole thing. I might have laughed with her…I don't think I ever did. I should have. Instead, I'd just stare over the top of whichever book I was reading at that time with a slightly raised eyebrow until she collapsed onto her bed, usually passing out with her shoes still on.

When big brother finally got home four weeks after, he immediately saw the letter that I had set out on the counter for him. It was a Sunday and he had come home about the time that I woke up. I came into the kitchen and he was pacing, still in his filthy, ripped jonin uniform. Dark, heavy circles were under his eyes and there appeared to still be some dried blood on his collar bone. When he came in, he had probably been staggering, but now he had renewed energy. He was like a caged tiger; he didn't know what to do, but he couldn't sit still – he felt like he had to do something. He bounced between saying that he was going to go after her and defeatedly realising how irrational that was; not only because she didn't want to be found but because it would ultimately be a waste of resources, as he'd have to track her down. She knew, in a strange way, why he was acting this way.

He felt abandoned. He'd raised her and she'd run away from him, without even trying to make him understand what she was feeling. She was out there somewhere and he couldn't protect her. It was a hopeless feeling that he wasn't used to and that made him frustrated.

He digested it, eventually. Sitting on the couch and staring at the letter in complete silence. I put my hand on his shoulder. I broke the silence by convincing him to go have a shower and get some sleep, although I knew he wouldn't be able to. Not for a few days anyway; the worry for her would plague his mind.

Atsuko's leaving, affected my already broken family deeply. Life continued, we weren't the sort of people to stay down.

Besides…she promised she'd come home. Someday. So all we had to do was make sure there was a home for her to come back to.

Little did we know how difficult a job that would be in the coming years.

XxX

My mother had a weak constitution her entire life, barely surviving the birth of our older brother six years before us. Almost inevitably, she hadn't survived the birth of myself and Atsuko. Maybe one she could have survived, but twins was something her frail body couldn't handle.

Our father, a respected jonin in our village, was left to raise a six year old son and twin infants on his own. He did his best and the few memories I have of him are good. They're vague, but when I think back on those fuzzy memories I can feel a deep fondness for him…even if I only really remember what he looked like because of pictures. Mostly, I remember ribbons. It's a silly thing, but my father always made sure Atsuko and I had different coloured ribbons and he bought new ones for us all the time. We had so many, that we each had to keep a shoebox of them. We were five, when he was killed in action.

My big brother, Genma Shiranui, was eleven at the time and a genin. Since genin are classified as adults, even if they're very young, Genma was legally able to keep us in his custody. So long as he submitted to have his care of us monitored – if it wasn't sufficient, we would be taken away and made wards of the village. He had the option to give us up several times and there were many who encouraged it, but Genma refused to allow the remainder of the Shiranui family to fall apart. It must have been a hard decision for him, but it was a decision that he never faltered on.

We didn't have a lot, but he was able to keep us fed and clothed. He worked hard to reach chunin and jonin not long after, so he could support us and when we turned ten he revealed that he had been saving money to send us both to Koba Private Academy, a prestigious school for civilian girls. Atsuko, had an inkling to be a kunoichi several years before that, but big brother had talked her out of it, preferring us both in the village. You didn't have to be kunoichi to serve the village, was what he had said. I think I may have taken it more to heart then my sister, because hearing him say that was what had first sparked my interest in the Civil Affairs Office. In school, Atsuko wowed her peers with her personality, earning rewards for starting initiatives and clubs, I was able to become one of the highest scoring students in my year. At sixteen, we were adults and graduated from Koba. With some stellar referrals from teachers, I easily made my way into my position at the Civil Affairs Office.

And I am happy there.

Solitary, quiet, little Kiyoko Shiranui. A civilian from Konohagakure, who was promised as a child that you didn't have to be a kunoichi to do important work for the village. The lustre, hasn't worn off. I still believe it. Births, deaths, city planning, economics, business licences, immigration, consumer protection, education standards, healthcare…all of these are things (and more) are handled by the Civil Affairs Office. I do indeed, consider what I do important. So, I do it with pride. I didn't think I could do any more to contribute to the village then I was already doing…but as it turns out I was wrong.

Surprisingly, there was more I could do.

It all started on a typical Monday, with a rumor of a department transfer and a long, agonizing walk to The Director's office in lopsided high-heels.