As the flames consumed the compound a young girl sat in the middle of it. Not in enjoyment or terror but in recognition for those around her. What the clan had done was far from right. It should never have happened but, no one can interfere with a clans practice.
She was a phoenix, reborn from the ashes of destruction. Her life taking on a new purpose from what the clan had originally chose for her. They wanted the ultimate weapon. Not knowing how close they were to achieving their goal.
Aria slipped into unconsciousness just as the leaf anbu arrived. Water from jutsu's whirling around. Trying to contain the unruly flames that cycled between orange, red and the brightest blue. One anbu in particular picked up the child laying on the ground in the midst of the flames. Her clothes burnt away in many places, body covered in suet.
Ibiki morino walked out of the hospital just as the sun was peaking over the horizon. The child identified as Hikaria Tanaka, currently still unconscious in the hospital. Ibiki headed to the third hokage to give him his report.
It had been several hours since the fires at the Tanaka compound have been put out. Over 20 bodies recovered. No idea how the fire started so far ibiki gave his report and left the hokage and headed home. Planning on getting some sleep after all this and the 2 week mission he had previously finished before the warning bell had gone off.
Sarutobi, third hokage of the Village hidden In the leaves sat in his office waiting for the man he had summoned. Three days after the fire the child had awakened. She hasn't said anything yet, but what stumped him the most was the lack of emotions reflecting in the child's eyes.
A normal 5 year old child was shy, happy, or scared even, but she showed nothing. She simply sat in her room watching the view through the little window that was there. He might believe she was in shock if she didn't function normally in the sense that she moved, ate, and used the facilities.
Sarutobi was ripped from his thoughts when Ibiki morino walked through the doors into his office.
"Ibiki I have a mission that I personally believe you are the only one qualified for, It will be a long term mission spanning over several years. You will be able to choose on this mission, if you want to accept it or not."
Ibiki looked at the third, before nodding his head telling him to continue.
"As you are aware that after the fire at the Tanaka compound, only a child was found. The sole survivor is the heir to the clan Hikaria Tanaka. She has awoken up from the coma she was in and our hands are tied on what to do. We have never had this happen before and she has no one to turn to. While unconscious the child was given a standard exam that those who are admitted to the hospital under go. They were looking for damage done to her from the fire but what the hospital staff found horrified them.
The girl's body is covered in scars, and burn marks. From what the report shows she has been tortured repeatedly over the last few years. They believe it began when she was approximately two. She has surgical scars covering her body as well as burns, and the symbol of her clan branded across her upper back. They all appear to be healed so the staff believes that the last injury was inflected over 6 months to a year ago.
We have tried to get a sense of her mental state but she won't react to the questions. You have been working in the Torture and interrogation unit for a few years now and the council and I believe you might be able to reach her. Which brings me back to the mission. I would like you to take the girl in and help raise her. With your past experience involving torture both physical and mental I think your perfect for this mission. You have an option here on whether you would like to raise her or not. I won't hold it against you if you choose not to.
Ibiki stood there for a few minutes digesting everything. He was stunned at what the hokage said. After what happened with Idate, Ibiki never thought he would be in the position of caring for anyone let alone raising a child. If she was as damaged as the hokage believed it might prove futile for anyone to try and reach the child. It would be a challenge in its own right for what would be required to help this child. But Ibiki Morino was never one to back down from a challenge.
"I accept the mission Hokage-san, When do I start?"
Sarutobi smiled "You will start immediately, you will be able to take on other missions later on when the girl has settled in a bit, but for now I would like you to continue working at anbu T&I, but try to focus as much of your time and energy in this girl. I believe with a proper environment and help she could become a great asset to this village and make a turn around on how she is acting. We don't know much about the clans of our village because of the non- involvement rule, but the Tanaka clan is the most secretive of them all. Her mother was Suina Tanaka who died in child-birth with Hikaria, and nothing is known of her father. You can pick her up from the hospital as soon as you're ready."
Walking through kohonagakure on his way to the hospital the edge of his trench coat swaying in the wind, he thought about the mission. He spent last night cleaning out the second room in his house and replaced it with the essentials for a 5 year old girl. At least what he was able to pick. Having raised Idate till he was 14 Ibiki really had no idea what to do or what to buy for a 5 year old girl. Surely Inoichi would have a better idea at what the girl would need, seeing how she was the same age as the Yamanaka heir and a girl to boot. Especially one that went through what she went through.
Having had his fair share of wounds and well scarred because of it. Ibiki knew what price came with the cost of it all, but being an adult he was able to work through his problems and even though the demons still lingered he made the best out of it. But for a child so young. To have suffered worst than what he has, Ibiki wasn't sure how stable her mind was currently. Could he help her heal or would she remain fractured and eventually break. Would he have to hunt her down one day because of it?"
Walking into the hospital room number 103 Ibiki looked at the girl who he had carried here 5 days ago. With her back towards him as she looked out the window
he silently observed her. Gone were the burnt clothes and mountains of suet and in its place was an extremely pale child dressed in standard white hospital cloths. Titian hair curled around her shoulders, the gold gleaming in the sunlight from the window. Red markings decorated her wrist in a swirling celtic pattern from the base of her wrist all the way up to her forearms.
From where he stood he could see the scarring the hokage was telling him about. It was bright pink and raised standing out against her arms and feet that he could see. Even though she didn't appear to be paying attention to anything Ibiki got the impression that all her senses were trained on him.
As Ibiki stepped closer to the middle of the room. Even though she didn't react at all, not even a muscle tensing he knew she would react if he acted aggressively to her she would react as well. Squaring his shoulders he spoke to her.
"The hokage has decided that since you have no other clan members to take care of you, I should be the one. We will leave the hospital today and go to my house. Where I have set up a room for you. In a few days we can get you some cloths of your picking, and anything else that you want. What I have at my house is more geared to a boy, but it will have to work for now."
After a few seconds of saying nothing just sitting there, he called at her to stand up but she didn't move. When he moved forward to pick her up she shot out of the bed and looked him square in the eyes and Ibiki stopped. Her eyes shinned like twin violets staring into his very soul. Reading him, studying and judging him. He didn't move a muscle feeling like this was important to her.
After a few minutes the violet color retreated and lavender replaced it. Turning and walking out of the room, she followed. Even though she didn't make a noise he knew she was 5 ft behind him. Eyes trailed on the blue sky above her but senses trained on everything else around her. Walking through Kohonagakure and into the entry way of his house Ibiki walked into the living room but left the door open so she could come through. She might not show it but she was like a cornered animal right now. One false move from him and she would take off.
Hearing the door close he turned to her. She was looking straight at him not even taking in the area. "This is the living room, the kitchen is through the open area to your right, bathroom is first door on the left down the hallway, laundry room second door on the left. My study is the first door on the right, you bedroom is the second and at the end of the hallway is my room. I need to do some work in my study so you have the run on the house. Try not to break and blow anything up." With that he stalked off, leaving her to get acquainted with the house.
When she heard the door close Aria looked around, the walls were a neutral brown, and the floors were some type of wood oak if she had to guess. In the living room sat two big brown leather couches, a huge t.v on the opposite wall and little things like a foot table and some night stands. Not many personal things littered the living room.
Heading to the kitchen it was the same. When she opened the door to the room she was given Aria just stood there. There wasn't much but what was there meant a lot to her. There was a real bed not a few blankets on the ground like she was used to. A dresser which revealed some t-shirts and a few pairs of boy shorts that looked like they might fit and some underwear. By the bed was a nightstand with a lamp.
After changing cloths Aria went outside through the back of the house. There was a small porch and a clearing about 10-20 ft with some trees. She sat on a deck chair and soaked in the sun light. It had been so long since she was outside and able the feel the warmth of the sun, she enjoyed it. Aside from waking up in the hospital, the last time Aria had been outside was over a year ago, in-between her training as the clan used to call it and the sealing ceremony that left the mark on her wrists.
After a few hours had past and the reports on the new recruits were finished Ibiki went to the kitchen for lunch where he saw Hikaria standing in front of the fridge looking in. Most likely hungry like himself he walked around her and pulled out some beef, and headed to the stove. Slicing some steaks from the beef and starting to fry them, he turned around to see Hikaria peeling a cucumber. After eating in silence and going back to work in his study Ibiki looked at the clock. It was already getting late and he left the study to head to bed. Passing Hikaria's room he looked inside, but she wasn't there. After searching the house he found her sitting on the porch sleeping in a chair that was too big for her. Picking her up he moved her to the bed in her room. Pulling the blanket over her he turned off the light and went to bed.
Ibiki shot up in the middle of the night. Looking around senses out trying to figure out what woke him. Glancing at the clock, it read 2:23am when he heard the scream. Jumped out of bed and into Hikaria's bedroom kunai in hand he looked around for the enemy when he saw what was wrong. Thrashing in the bed another scream ripped its way from her throat. Ibiki knelt next to the bed and gently put his hand on her head while talking to her. None of what he said would make sense to anyone but it did the job. She started calming down and her trashing stilled and the screaming stopped. As he headed out of the room he didn't see the pair of lavender eyes watch him go.
After pointing out a few ground rules such as what areas were open to move around, which ones were restricted where he had to be there for her to enter and what was off limits the next day they settled in a routine where he would Make breakfast in the morning and then work in his study. After he went back to work at T&I he would come home for lunch. Most of the time he would catch her reading outside in the sun, she seemed to never get enough of it. He would go back to work after lunch and come home a few hours before bed time and they would have dinner.
After living together for almost a month she said her first words to him. Nothing special she had just said "Thank you." When he handed her a glass of milk during breakfast. Not long after that when he was calling for her once when he had gotten dinner ready she said "Aria." It was what she preferred to be called."
After about 6 months she still had nightmares at night but not nearly as frequent as it used to be. She opened up more, where they could have conversations. She never talked about what happened at the clan compound and he didn't press the subject.
He came home one afternoon for lunch. When he reached the backyard what he saw made him pause for a second. Standing in the yard with a set of wooden shurikens that she was practicing with. Her aim was off and her stance was wrong, but for a 5 year old she was better than what it should be. He decided to start training her.
When they got up in the morning he would show he a technique that she would spend all day working on. She learned very fast most techniques she took no time in becoming competent in. His study was full of books that had all sorts of information on ninja techniques, which she absorbed like a sponge. When she turned six, after living with him for 10 months he gave her, her first set of real kunai.
Ibiki would never forget the look on her face when he handed them to her. Her whole face lite up like a paper bomb. She spent all night training with them. Her aim having improved greatly where she always hit the bull's-eye on the tree. Next he started working on movement with her. Because of her size she was fast but he worked longer with her on her strength.
Ibiki did notice one thing that concerned him about her chakra. It didn't seem like she had any. While he was trying to teach her to at least get an awareness of it she could move manipulate it into her body but he couldn't detect any coming from her. Normally with a child their chakra was out of their control when they first started using it so it fluctuated everywhere when they manipulated it. It but with Aria even though she used it he couldn't detect it.
When he brought home paper that was made from a tree infused with chakra to determine what type she was the paper disintegrated. Not like burning in a fire or crumbling from earth it simply disappeared like it had never been there before. So Ibiki took her to anbu headquarters to be tested by a chakra specialist but the results stunned him and the specialist.
The chakra specialist informed him that Aria had not one or two chakra nature but in fact she had all 5. They seemed to radiate from her and when the specialist tried to infuse his with hers he got shocked strongly from it. He stated that she seemed to have something blocking her chakra from him and he couldn't access it. Normally when the specialist went to check someone's chakra he was able to get a feel from it, but with the force in which it hit him, there was only one explanation for it.
Never had he come across someone with all 5 elements, it was extremely rare but when he got shocked it was so strong that he could feel traces of the elements that were surging through him. He thought that she might have something that was inside of her that was blocking it. Ibiki took her to the hospital to be scanned for the object but the results left him cold and the doctor shaken.
The scans of her body showed runic symbols etched into her bones. Symbols that boosted the chakra they represented. Normally some people have these symbols tattooed on them to enhance their own chakra, but the symbols were etched into her using a chakra medal grinned to a fine dust, scored into the etchings and heated to become solid yet flexible to her bones. The runes where etched throughout her whole body.
As they left Ibiki's mind was running a mile a minute. Just by looking at the placements of the runes and the scars that she had before coming to him he now knew how she got some of them. Including the large Y-incision that went from her shoulders down to her belly button. Walking into his study and sinking into his chair Ibiki did something that he hadn't done since being a kid himself, he cried. He cried at that thought of what they hand done to her. His hands clenched into fist and his nails bit into his palms and he imagined everything he would have done to the bastards that did that to a child. Life was never an easy or simple thing. It came with hardships and trials that everyone faced, but to torture a child was unspeakable.
Feeling a pressure on his shoulder Ibiki turned his head and looked into the lavender eyes of his daughter. Her eyes spoke volumes of what had happened. Ibiki pulled her in to his arms and hugged her tightly as wetness escaped his eyes and down his back from hers. No words needed to be spoken between them. They both understood what this was. Two people who went through hell, comforting each other. A father and his daughter together, a family. Family was not just for those of blood it was a bond of Love, trust and comfort. Being a family meant you would do anything for those in it. You would die or kill for them. You're the shoulder for them to cry on, and the hands that protect them from the world. It was small and it was new but the bond between them was there and nether would let anything rip it apart.