The Lost Child
By Jack Manson
The third Hokage was so overwhelmed with work that night that he had purposely stationed two chunnin guards outside of his office to make sure he was undisturbed. He was painfully aware, as was the rest of the village, of the oncoming battle that would egnite roughly around the time the dawn spilled over the trees of Konoha.
They were at war, and they were outnumbered greatly and devestatingly. It was times like this when he felt old again, and painfully realized he was not in the physical shape he used to be. Despite being a very strong village, Konoha was still, in essance, a village. They were not a country nor a city, but a small community. Even Suna was twice the size of Konohagakure.
Sarutobi had taken control of the alerts, while the rest of the village prepared for attack. He wrote as quickly as he could whilst still keeping his handwritting as readable as possible, and then passed every scroll over to an ANBU boy, roughly a teenager, who was attaching each of the letters quickly to the ankles of grand falcons that they used to transmit speedy messages from village to village. At that moment, Sarutobi was sending word to any village they were in alliance with, however small that alliance may have been, with the request to send help. Sadly, there were only three villages at that point in time that Konoha could call their friends, and that term was stretching it.
The boy was no secretary, but it had been him who had spotted the oncoming attack briefly on his way back from his mission with the two other ANBU shinobi stationed in his squad. The third Hokage kept him there to help him send out the messages, but would soon let him rejoin the other elites to prepare for battle.
Roughly, he finished the last message, rolled the scroll into it's container, and hastily slapped a blood-red seal around the cylinder. This was the mark of urgent news, and if any village saw this color, they knew to expect the worst.
Sarutobi handed the scroll to his aid. The boy quickly tied it to the leg of one of the birds, and helped him fly from the window. As he watched him do so, the third couldn't help but wish that Minato had not died so soon. He would have been a magnificent help had he survived the Kyuubi attack.
He glanced sorrowfully at a building down below, which was the Konoha hospital. He could see medical ninjas rushing patients from the complex and down into shelters and safe houses below the village. For the quickest of moments, he thought he saw one woman carrying a baby with blonde hair from the pediactric wing.
He managed to push the thought from his mind as he turned back to the ANBU boy.
"Kakashi," he said, "go help the others, and thank you for assiting me."
Kakashi, one of the youngest ANBU elites to ever exist, complied and left the office quickly, running from the Hokage tower and dashing along the busied streets to find his squad, his friends who had been with him when they discovered the enemies approaching the village nearly two hours before.
It was Hayate who saw him approaching them first. He asked, "are the messages out?"
"Yes." Kakashi answered, looking to the sky and seeing the last falcon dissapear into the low clouds. "Let's just hope the other villages send aid."
Genma, a little way off from them, was helping a family of non-shinobi by giving them directions to a safehouse. When they fled from him, dragging their children and sentimental posessions, he ran back to join them.
"The other squads are already done with formations and such, right now the most we can do to help is to get the citizens out of the way." He handed Kakashi and Hayate identical scrolls. "Those are the positions of every shelter, safe house, and bunker." He explained, as Kakashi opened the parchment to see a map of Konoha illustrated inside. "Help anyone who isn't sure where to go."
And so, they parted, each going in a separate direction. Kakashi took the north end of the village, quickly finding any straglers who looked frightened or lost. He helped several families and loners to find the nearest place to hide, but he didn't keep this task going for long. Almost a second after he sent a girl younger than him down the street to a bunker did he see a kunai strike her in the skull, sending her staggering sideways slightly before falling to the ground, dead.
The attack had already started, and, people were still running to find a place to hide. He tried to continue his task, but was suddenly blinded by a flash coming southward, and dumbstruck as an explosion hurled debris and rubble through the air. The southern gate had been breeched, and massive chunks of stone crashed into buildings and shattered houses.
"What a clusterfuck," Kakashi thought to himself, keeping out of view of stray enemies as he managed to slice their throats as he lunged at them from the darkness of alleys and made his way to where the bulk of the fighting was taking place. "If only we had a little more time to prepare."
"Kakashi!" Someone called. He halted and saw a woman with dark purple hair running towards him from the opposite end of the street where he was heading. It was Anko, a friend of his, who was not yet a jounin but a highly respected chunnin. She was dragging a little blonde girl along with her by the hand.
"Anko?" He said, "shouldn't you be back there?" He asked, pointing behind her where the smoke was still billowing into the lighter sky from the explosion that had leaft them exposed.
"No, I have to get this girl to a bunker." She frowned. "We need to keep everyone underground, because the safe houses are too easy to destroy."
Kakashi glanced at the child, whose face was slightly burnt near her cheek and she was covered in soot. Her eyes were swollen and her hands were battered annd bruised.
"Anyways, I need you to do something. The kid says when the gate was destroyed, so was the Fujioka residence."
"So?" Kakashi said, though he knew the Fujioka's somehwat well, they were a highly respected family of shinobi, though they had no bloodline, so they were still outshined by the Hyuuga's and Uchiha's.
Anko rolled her eyes. "So, she says she heard a child crying inside," she explained, "apparently it's trapped under debris or something. You know the Fujioka's only had one kid, if she's still alive you need to get her somewhere safe. I'd do it myself, but I'm kind of busy." Anko raised the hand of the girl she was leading.
She ran off, then, and Kakashi was at a loss. He wanted to join the fighting, where his squad was probably already at. But he knew how important it was to save a child in need, and exspecially if they were, apparently, the sole survivor of a family.
He cursed inwardly and ran towards the battle, but not to fight. He managed to kill any enemy in his way or assit any Konoha shinobi he came across as he followed the clearest route to the Fujioka house. When he did spot it, he also immediately heard the wails of a baby, just like the girl had claimed.
Making sure no enemies spotted him, he made his way into the rubble of the house, which was very much so crushed by a piece of the gate. It was gloomy inside and dust was everywhere, but he shoved aside planks of wood and broken doors until he saw her; Little Sakura, barely a year old, with flaming pink hair and frightened green eyes. Next to her crib he saw part of the roof had crushed someone, and their delicate hand was sticking out from beneath the wood. At the same time, the remainder of the roof was creaking threateningly.
As he scooped the child up into his arms he stopped to think quickly. Anko said the safe houses were no longer safe, but shelters were more protected and bunkers were underground. He considered the interregation chambers, which were not far, but he had seen most of the fighting was taking place right above the entrance. He unrolled his map as Sakura finally stopped crying and held onto his neck. He was having difficulty reading in the gloom and ripped off his ANBU mask, tossing it aside worthlessly. There was nothing close for her that was safe, except...
"The Haruno's," Kakashi thought trumphantly, "they live up above the village on the Hokage monument, which probably won't be reached by any enemies if we can hold them back."
The only problem with this was that the Haruno's, a very mediocre but somewhat talented family, were further away than any of the safe houses. He would have to keep the girl safe longer than her would if he went to a safe house.
Decided, he squeezed his way from the Fujikoa residence and ran as fast as he could, but not at full speed because there was a chance it would give Sakura whiplash if he made a sudden turn or jump, away from the rubble and center of battle. With one arm, he held the girl close to him, tucking her head under his chin, and with his free hand he performed as many techniques as he could, and threw as many weapons as he dared at any enemy he crossed paths with.
Several times he ran into a friend or aquaintence, who stared in disbelief as he ran passed them without even a glance. It was not every day you saw Kakashi Hatake running in uniform with a year-old child firm in his grasp. But thankfully, she was no longer crying, but instead didn't seem to know the extent of what was happening around her, and was tugging at his black mask. He did not even hesitate when she pulled it down completely with a squeal of accomplishment and refused to let go of the synthetic fabric.
It didn't take him as long as he thought it would to reach the passage up the cliffside to the plateau up above. He could not walk up the side so easily now, because it was almost completely daylight and he couldn't risk any enemies spotting him from down below. Instead, he used the passage, which somewhat drove into the cliffside itself, but wound it's way upwards slowly until it reached the groud above.
When he was above, he did not go straight to the Haruno's, but instead gazed down at Konoha. The fighting at the southern gate had spilled into the rest of the village while he had been climbing the passage as quickly as possible, and many of the buildings were engulfed in flame, including his own. For awhile, he just watched, unsure of what to think, but was suddenly reminded of why he was there when Sakura gave a sudden sob and started to cry again, although not so loud and more softly. He patted her back comfortingly until she calmed down, replaced his mask, and then returned to the task at hand. The Haruno's live somewhere up on this plateau, and it didn't take long to find the house hidden in the forest. It was guarded by two ANBU elites, like himself, and he immediately realized it was Hayate and Genma.
They nearly had a heart attack when they saw him, and Genma sighed and said, "we thought you were dead meat, Kakash- do you realize you're holding a baby?"
Kakashi rolled his eyes. "It's Sakura Fujioka, I got her out of the house before the roof collasped on her, too."
Hayate coughed, and then frowned. "The Fujioka's are dead?"
"From what I can tell." Kakashi replied, "I need to get her inside."
Genma opened the door for him, and apparently the Haruno's had already been sought out to be used as a safe house. The younger members of the family were taking food from the kitchen to distribute amoungst the refugees, and the older members were tending to wounds. Kakashi immediately sought out a Haruno woman, who was busy with realigning a man's dislockated shoulder, and explained to her Sakura's condition.
She, like Hayate, whispered, "the Fujioka's are dead?"
"Yes, so, this girl here is an orphan." Kakashi said, and handed the child to the woman. For a moment, Sakura would not let go of Kakashi's neck, but eventually didn't bother with a struggle and released him. He smiled at her and patted her head gently before returning outside to regroup with the rest of Konoha's forces.
Several years later, Kakashi was no longer a member of ANBU, and was told by the third Hokage that he was going to be taking on Genin students. The idea was not at all too enticing until he heard who he was training.
"Sasuke Uchiha," he thought to himself, looking over the files, "I should be honored. And Naruto Uzumaki, he'll probably be trouble." Then he stopped abruptly, coming to the last page of his issued report of all three of the students he'd be taking under his wing. He smiled to himself beneath his mask. "Well, if it isn't Sakura Haruno..."
Although extensively throughout their expiriences together, Kakashi realized quickly that Sakura was not exactly the best kunoichi he had ever seen, he saw room for improvement. And although she was never told of his efforts to save her, he continued to look at her with warm eyes when he was positive nobody was looking.
A/N: I'm thinking of turning this into a full-length story here, but I'm not sure if it's worth the time. So tell me what you think in reviews and I might consider it =)