Hello! And welcome to the opening chapter of my second fic, LAST CORRESPONDENCE!

A few base fyi's

1. Italics are internal thoughts and I think it's kinda obvious whose thoughts are whose.

2. I'm gonna follow manga and/or anime as much or as little as I damn well please, so if you don't like spoilers or changing up the canon at times… well, you get the idea.

3. Tenten and Sai don't exist in this fic. My OC replaces both of them.

Disclaimer (the one and only I will ever bother to type cause I'm lazy and I find it superfluous to rewrite this every freakin' time in, what's probably going to be, a 40+ chapter story.): I do not OWN Naruto. Masashi Kishimoto does. I do however, WORSHIP it. lol.

Chapter 1: Familial Traits

"Oh hey, Kakashi-kun! Wait up will ya'?" The young thirteen year old boy stopped walking and turned around to see his sensei chasing after him. "Oh good.", the tall, blonde man had caught up to him. "I'm glad I found you. There uh… was something I wanted to talk to you about."

"O.k." The underage Jounin stared up at his teacher listlessly. Kakashi had nothing better to do. That's why he was walking aimlessly around town… bored.

"Heh, umm…" Minato grinned in an awkward fashion. Geez, this is such horrible news. And so soon after… Well, maybe at least with me telling him, he'll go see her. "You know what?" He placed his hand on his student's shoulder and began leading him down the street. "You and I don't talk a whole lot. I mean, I was sitting in my new office and I thought… 'How messed up is it that I know next to nothing about my own student?'."

Kakashi looked up at the much taller man. "You don't like your new position?" Minato had been inaugurated as Hokage a couple of days ago.

"Meh… It's not that I don't like it. It's that I'm bored out of my mind doing paperwork." He tilted his head back and pinched the bridge of his nose in aggravation, shaking his head back and forth. "Hey, no." He refocused himself. "No changing the subject, kid. We're talking about you right now."

The silver-haired teen shrugged his shoulders lethargically. "Kay. What do you want to know?" What is he talking about? He knows practically everything about me. Ugh, at least no one is around to see him spaz like this.

"Are you an only child?" The question was unbelievably blunt and the one spazzing at the moment wasn't Minato, it was the kid. Poor thing's eye was twitching.

"… Why do you ask?" Kakashi began to furiously rub his one covered eye. Whenever he started getting stressed, it would itch like crazy.

"I already told you why. And stop it." The Yondaime slapped the young boy's hand away from his own face. "Rin says that if you keep messing with it, it'll never heal." It had only been six weeks since Obito's untimely death and Kakashi's unexpected gift… his friend's eye. "If you don't stop, I'll put hot pepper on your fingers to make you stop."

"Yes, sensei." Kakashi's hand dropped back to his side as they continued to walk down the streets.

"So?"

"So what?"

Minato shook his head, tired of the cat and mouse game already. "Are you or aren't you an only child?"

Kakashi continued to stare at the path ahead of him. … He's only asking me cause, somehow, he found out about Akane. She's not my sister… at least not anymore. Not since Father disowned her back when I was little. I haven't seen her in years; figured she'd left the village after that last fight. "Yea, I'm an only child."

Minato stopped walking a disappointed look on his face. "Oh… I see. Well then," He reached into his pocket and pulled out two letters. "I guess these have nothing to do with you." The two letters appeared identical except for the names on their envelopes. One said 'Kashi-kun' the other read 'Kara-hime'.

"What are those?" Kakashi couldn't hide his genuine curiosity.

"Hm? Oh these?" The blonde waved them about a bit for dramatic effect. "These are for the only living relatives of Harada Akane. They found their way onto my desk an hour or so ago and I made it my mission to find their rightful owners." The Hokage's blue eyes settled down upon Kakashi with a serious glint. "I just assumed that 'Kashi' was short for 'Kakashi'. But I guess it's not as rare a name as I thought it was. Clearly, you have no idea who this woman was."

…was? …living relatives? Wait, does he mean…? "Yea, I've never heard of her before." The boy ran a hand through his silver hair and desperately resisted the urge to scratch his new eye til it bled.

Minato rolled his eyes without trying to hide the action in the least. "M'kay then." He held the letters in front of his face. "Maybe this 'Kashi' knows 'Kara', cause I've never met a 'Kara' before and I wonder who she is." He lowered his hand to put the letters back in his pocket, but strategically missed allowing them to fall to the ground in front of his student. The two shared a glance before the Hokage began walking away. "Oh and if that eye of yours is bothering you that much, maybe you ought to go see Rin. She's on duty right now." He pointed to the hospital behind the teenage boy. Minato had walked him right up to the building's front steps. "See ya' later, Kashi-kun."

Kakashi stood still and silent until his sensei was out of sight, before he bent down and picked up the two pieces of mail. Akane…. Onee-chan. The young boy shoved the letters into his front pocket and swiveled around, making his way inside the hospital.

It must have been a slow day. The hospital was operating with a skeleton crew and it showed. The front waiting room was completely empty and only one nurse sat at the front desk; bored and reading a magazine with her feet propped up on the counter. Kakashi stood quietly at the woman's desk for a moment before he realized she was ignoring him. He coughed quietly, then loudly to attract her attention. With a huff and a pop of her gum, she leaned her head back and looked at him with a 'what?' expression on her face.

"I'm looking for Haruno Rin. She works here." His irritation came out through his voice. She matched it with her lackluster point down the hall and mumbling of 'nursery'.

Kakashi headed down the hall and arrived at a flight of stairs. The nurse 'so conveniently' left out the fact that the nursery was on the second floor and part of the west wing that included several other departments, like Maternity and Ultrasound/X-Ray. Luckily for him, he was smart and knew how to read the actually convenient wall maps that were positioned at every stairwell.

He made his way up the stairs, following the signs. Not that he had to. He could just catch the sound of a couple infants crying. It was obvious where he was. "Hello?" He stood at the abandoned nurse's station, looking around for Rin. There was no one there as far as he could tell, so he started wandering about. Maybe he'd get lucky and run into someone who could tell him where she was.

Then the ancient habit, which all humans have, kicked in as he walked past the newborn's room. Through the large glass windows, he couldn't help but stop and look at them. There were six of them at the moment. Some were squirming about; it looked like two were crying while the rest seemed content with their situation. All these babies and no nurses around at all? That's just not safe. What if one of them fell? Or started choking or something?, he thought too soon.

A very joyful, "Hello!" reached his ears. Kakashi turned around to see a short, elderly woman with stark white hair, smiling brightly at him.

"Uh, hello ma'am. I was looking-"

"For Kara, yes. The Hokage already told me someone was going to come see her. Come on, come on." The old woman pushed and prodded him to go with her inside the nursery. "She's just the most precious thing I think I've ever seen. Gosh, just see for yourself." She stood next to one of the cradles and gestured for the boy to look.

Hesitantly, Kakashi made his way to the edge and gazed down at the little girl. She was bundled up in a blanket, sleeping and resembling a bug in its cocoon. He leaned in closer to get a better look. Unfortunately, he was still adjusting to the lack of depth perception and he entered that invisible bubble that babies have, waking her. She didn't cry or scream out, her eyes just popped open suddenly. Instantly, he pulled back.

"Oh would you just look at those eyes sparkle." The old nurse cooed. "Like mint condition coins." Little Kara had bright blue eyes that stayed fixated on Kakashi. Such a strange looking giant, standing so close to you, would catch your attention too. The little girl started to wiggle and squirm about, fighting her way out of her swaddling till the nurse reached down and picked her up. "Oh here, you hold her." The nurse pushed the infant into Kakashi's arms.

Obediently and still mildly shocked over the sight of her eyes, he held her in his arms away from his body. The blue eyes blinked curiously at him and a small, toothless smile crossed the child's face.

"You need to support her neck, sweetheart." The old woman moved his hands for him, inadvertently pulling the blanket off the top of her head. Kara had a tuft of light grey hair. It matched her perfectly. "Ah, you see. She's just perfect."

"How old is she?" Kakashi didn't take his eyes off of Kara.

"Just a week and a half." The nurse picked up Kara's chart and flipped through a few pages. "Poor thing…" She sighed dejectedly.

"Why? What is it?" The boy looked away from the little girl and at the nurse.

The white-haired old woman set down the medical chart. "She doesn't have anyone. Her mother died in labor and there are no listed living relatives. I just hope she doesn't get forgotten in the system." She rubbed her own arm in a self-assuring motion. "I've seen it happen to so many wonderful children around here."

Kakashi slowly set Kara back down in her crib. The girl began fussing and reached out to grab his finger, not wanting to be put down. "I'm sure that won't happen." The nurse looked at him with a questioning face. He floundered for a moment before coming up with some good reasoning that the compassionate woman would eat up. "With a face like her's, I'm sure people will be good to her."

"Oh you're such a sweet child." The nurse clasped his hands in her own.

"Kakashi?" Rin stood in the door to the nursery. "What are you doing here?"

He looked back at the baby, whose eyes never stopped staring at him. "I had an errand to run and then I wanted you to take a look at my eye. It's been bothering me."

"Alright then, come on. I'll take a look at it now." The young girl opened the door more, beckoning for him to follow her out.

Kakashi started out of the room, but raised his hand to tell Rin to wait a moment. He turned back and pulled out the letter with 'Kara-hime' written on it. "Could you please make sure she gets this?" He handed the letter to the nurse. She nodded assuredly. "Thank you." He left the room, following Rin to a small examination room.

"Was that your errand?" Rin asked as she removed the bandages from his left eye.

"Was what my errand?" The boy flinched as she gingerly touched the scar.

"That letter you delivered to the nurse." She held his chin to stop him from moving while she examined the healing. "What was it about?"

Kakashi was silent for a moment, considering his options while his eye burned like it was on fire. The truth or denial? …Denial's not that bad of a place to live I guess. "It was nothing. Just something Minato-sensei asked me to do for him."

"Oh." The medic nin threw out the old bandages in the hazardous waste bin and turned back to her teammate. "When was the last time you opened your eye?"

"Huh?"

"Your eye. You haven't opened it in weeks have you?" Rin reached forward and put her thumb just under his eyebrow, ready to pull up and force him to open it. "The scar tissue is starting to seal your eye shut. I'll cut through it, but you need to use this eye. You know what they say." She picked up a scalpel and made a quick slice. "Use it or lose it, Kakashi-kun."

He opened his eye and blinked a few times, undeniably grateful that Rin was a proficient surgeon. She dabbed some gauze where he was bleeding from the cut. Almost instantly, the itching stopped. "Thanks Rin."

She smiled widely and patted him on the leg. "No problem." Kakashi stood up from the examination table and the remaining letter in his pocket, the one addressed to him, fell out. "What's this?" Rin picked it up before he could react. "It has your name on it."

"It's nothing." Kakashi snatched the letter from her hand and crumpled it up, hastily throwing it in the nearest waste receptacle, the one for hazardous waste.

Rin shot him an incredulous stare. "Well, if it wasn't before, it is now." She pointed to the sign on the bin. "Everything that goes in there gets sent to the furnace… daily."

…shit. "It was nothing." He shrugged his shoulders and left the room. Dammit. I-I don't have anything now. What did she want to tell me that I couldn't figure out on my own? I get it. Kara's my niece… I have a niece. Weird…

'sigh' I'm in love with my own story. If only ya'll knew… well, ya'll will eventually cause I'm gonna write it. (Even though I'm extremely bias, and hate the character, Sasuke, with every fiber of my manga addicted existence… I can really see this working. So I'm going to do a good job of this. Who knows, maybe I'll make myself like him somehow.)