Profile
He's from a feline-based clan (inspired by Inuzuka, but cat-based...) that originally operated out of Kiri, but when rumours of bloodline purges and the like started coming around, they sent a contingent of the youngest clan members to various non-Kiri places, hoping that they would scatter and survive.
Yuudai did. He doesn't know if anyone else did - if they did he's certainly never met anyone else if they did.
He grew up with a retired ninja-medic called 'grandmother'. She treats anyone who pays - be it missing-nin, regular ninja, even civilians if they can pony up something useful to swap to her. Yuudai demonstrated exceptional chakra control from a young age, so she trains him as a medical ninja, and he's lightning-based, so she trades for some lightning-release scrolls which he practices religiously. Despite her determination to not get attached to the brat, she becomes ....fond of him. Yuudai grows up with her, helping treat patients very seriously and sometimes secretly till he's about 11, when she finally tells the boy she's raised from a babe that he's not hers. Yuudai frowns and is like: why keep me, then? Because it's not like there's not been babies dumped on the doorstep before, or mothers that have died in childbirth despite their best efforts, leaving only a squalling infant behind. Grandmother has the means to find families for them, after all. Grandmother tells Yuudai she owed his parents a debt. She doesn't mention the fact he was only supposed to be here for a year or so, tops. And then, sadly, she informs him about the bloodline purges, about his clan, etc. Passes him the sealed scrolls that she was supposed to have given him once he came of age, warns him not to try any of the jutsu in there without reading very carefully. Fortunately he listens......mostly. He reads through the scrolls carefully, and then he seals them away again, and cries over what he's lost. Because like the Inuzuka the Katou are supposed to have a feline partner - someone who grows with them, grows beside them.
He wonders, briefly, what happened to his, if they're the part of him that feels empty and aching at night.
He reads the scrolls every night, tracing his fingers over the names of his clan, wondering about what could have been. Then he seals the scrolls again, and returns to work. There are patients to deal with, after all.
On his 12th birthday, everything changes.
They're travelling through a mountain pass when it happens ; an ambush. Bandits. Expecting easy prey from an old lady and her young travel partner. Yuudai has mercy-killed before, but this time is his first kill. And his second, and third, and fourth. The two of them hole up in what they thought to be an empty cave, only to discover from the snarling it was not. Yuudai staggers to his feet as a cub yowls and he - he stops.
The snow leopard is huge - far bigger than any natural cat and with two lashing tails. And her cub......her cub is pitch black with a split tail but that's not what catches his attention. The cub bears familiar eye markings. The boy and the cat's eyes widen in surprise at the same time and he is suddenly bowled over by emotions as the cub charges at him reaching-reaching but not with claws though he does feel the pinprick through his shorts, but reaching with her emotions, her chakra.
He speaks her name at the same time she speaks his.
The mother snow leopard watches her cub bond with what will now be her partner for life. She turns her head to Grandmother, snarls but it is more out of sorrow than malice. Around her eyes, faded markings crinkle as she closes her eyes and pads out into the night. She is more animal now than she was. But some instincts - some things are not forgotten.
Tsumaru grows fast, and is endlessly hungry. Yuudai hunts for her and with her as they grow, together. It is not perhaps, what was meant. But it is what is. Their bond is solid.
On his 13th birthday, with Tsumaru almost as tall as he is at the shoulder, and far more menacing besides, Grandmother gives him a headband with a whirlpool inscribed on it.
It was hers once, she says. Before Whirlpool fell, and she couldn't take belonging to a village again when she came back to ruins.
(Yuudai's eyes widen as he realises that there a lot of things she never told him.)
You need a home, she says.
I have one with you, he replies, weakly. But she shakes her head, wraps gnarled and weakened fingers around his callused ones. Smiles at him one last time.
It's time, Yuudai. You must have noticed.
He had ; she was losing memories. Looking vacant. Her chakra had dropped ; depleted no matter how much rest she got.
He swallows, presses his forehead against hers.
Until we meet again.
She smiles at the traditional shinobi farewell.
She sees him off as he sets off towards Konoha, with everything he owns neatly sealed in storage scrolls. She's written him a letter of reccomendation, sealed it with her blood and chakra.
The name Uzumaki probably still holds some weight, after all, right?
It was a great clan of Whirlpool, after all.
Hopefully she's done this one thing right.
(As a kid, Yuudai had a prominent lisp as his fangs grew in. Imagine this scene; wizened grandmother medic with tiny adorable apprentice. "Feel better soon thinobi-than!")
