AUTHORS NOTE: This story is something I was working on in school, I'm only going to continue it if the reviews are good, I mean if the story is really bad i'd like to know that so I don't continue to update a story that sucks. Anywho, let me know what you think so I know if its worth continuing on!
Oh! And just so everyone knows i'm still fixing this chapter, adding parts to it, and trying to make it better. I'm not completely happy with it yet and I won't settle until I am! So don't be surprised if I keep updating the same chapter ^.^ i'm just trying to make this as good as it can be.
WARNINGS: None as of yet, there may be some warnings later in the story.
DISCLAIMER: I do no own Naruto, or any of the Naruto Character's they belong only to their creator and I have no part in that. I'm not that creative... I do own Korin and Kaiten... they are original characters as far as I know.
"Don't worry Kai, we'll find you a mommy soon." I whispered to the tiny bundle in the wagon I was pulling behind me. As if she understood me the baby let out a soft coo and waved her little fist. Her name was Kaiten, and she was the last thing our mother gave me before she died, she had entrusted me with the care of the newborn and a single letter with an address I could barely read.
I didn't mourn my mother's death as most 6 year olds would. It wasn't that I didn't love my mother, I loved her dearly but it was necessary that I accepted her passing and held the tears for when I was safe in our new home. I simply didn't have the time to mourn right now, not with Kai to take care of. Instead I had wrapped the baby in a blanket, tucked her into a wagon, and with a final good-bye to my mother, I took the path my feet lead me.
I had no real sense of time or direction as I walked, all I focused on was the deep, instinctual, feeling that was telling me I was almost home. It was a feeling that I had known all my life, all the short six years I had lived thus far. It was like a whisper inside my heart.
My Mother once told me that it was my personal angel and that it would keep me safe, she told me to always listen to that voice and follow it no matter what, or where, it lead me. At that time it was the most wonderful thing my mother had ever said to me, because it told me that she believed me and that she accepted and encouraged a power she had no certainty of. She trusted me so completely and now she was trusting me with my baby sister. I would not fail her, not now that everything was resting on me. I had my angel's voice to guide me.
I had no food, no water, and no idea how far this journey would be. I just prayed that my angel would continue to serve me and would show me the way, keep me and Kai safe as we walked down unfamiliar streets. I couldn't read the street names and everyone who passed by was a blur of color and noise. None of them looked twice at the little girl pulling an infant along. Maybe they thought I was headed home, maybe they knew we were orphans, maybe they just didn't care. Regardless of their reason, none of them stopped. I didn't expect them too though, even at six I understood that people were fundamentally bad most of the time, and they wouldn't question a child walking down the street with an infant. It wouldn't register as wrong to them because they didn't want it to be wrong, people want to believe the world is sunshine and roses and that I was headed home to a warm, loving, and very much alive family.
Instead of headed to where ever my feet were taking me, following nothing more than a feeling that was steadily growing stronger with ever step I took, pulling me farther and farther down the road. Until, finally, it reached a screaming crescendo outside of a huge house. It was simple in structure and, had I been paying any attention before, I would have noticed it was, in fact, part of a village of sorts surrounded by a huge gate. The only real color I would see was a funny looking red and white fan thing above the doorway. It looked vaguely familiar but I couldn't place where I had seen it before.
Inside I could hear the distinct sound of a baby crying and I knew, somehow, that we were home. I had found the place my mother had addressed in the letter. My heart was so incredibly certain of this that I couldn't stop to question it. I don't know how I knew, but I did. It was unexplainable and complete. I pulled the wagon up to the doorway and knocked softly, moments later the door swung open and a beautiful woman with long blue hair and gentle eyes smiled down at me, a tiny baby of her own tucked in her arms.
"Well hello dear, what are you doing here?"She asked looking from me ,to Kai in the wagon, and back again. I could see the concern rapidly growing in her eyes. I opened my mouth to answer her but my voice refused to form words, my throat felt tight and my chest hurt. I was suddenly too choked up on an unexplainable emotion I couldn't bring myself to speak, instead I handed her the letter my mother had given me with the address on it. I may not know this woman's name, or even if the address on the envelope and the address on the house actually matched.
But my heart knew that this letter was meant to go to this woman and that I WAS at the right house. I was exactly where I was meant to be. She slowly reached out to take the letter, carefully adjusting the baby so she could rip the letter open and quickly scan the contents. Her large, dark eyes widened as she read, flickering toward me and Kai, and back to the words. She only bothered to scan the first page before she folded the letter up with trembling hands and tucked it into a pocket of the apron she was wearing.
A strained smile tried to brighten her face as she motioned for me to come inside."Alright honey, can you pick her up on your own and bring her inside? There should be room in Sasuke's crib for both of them." She opened the door wide as I quickly scooped Kai up in my arms, she was so tiny and barely stirred as I carried her inside. It looked like I found this new mommy just in time, Kai was going to be alright. We would grow up with this new family, and she would thrive here.
I followed the woman up a set of stairs and into a lovely nursery with stuffed toys spread everywhere, and a big crib taking up the center of the room. A rocking chair sat beside it with a pile of picture books next to it. The woman stepped around the toys, moving them aside for me as she went, and gently laid the baby, Sasuke I assumed, down and turning to me to lift Kai from my arms and set her next to the boy. I felt my breath leave me in a sign of relief, a weight had been lifted from my shoulders the moment my baby sister was laid in the crib. She was going to be ok now, I knew that without a doubt.
However something still wasn't right, that intense feeling my my chest, the one that had lead me to this house, was back, pulling me. Begging me to find something... someone. I frowned slightly trying to shake it off. I was here, what more did I need to do? What else could I possibly need to find?
"So Honey, what's your name? And does the baby girl have a name yet?" The woman's soft tones cut threw my thoughts and the intensity of the feeling lessened for a moment as I answered her. "My name is Korin Hikari, my sister's name is Kaiten." My voice sounded lost, confused even, and I knew it was because of the feeling that was growing stronger every second, it was suffocating my heart and making it hard to breath and impossible to think.
I just couldn't figure out what it was trying to say, it was whispering something over and over again. It almost sounded desperate and it was making my head spin. I wanted to cry and it frustrated me that I had absolutely no idea why I was feeling so intensely. It didn't make sense, I was at this house so why was it screaming at me again?
"You know Korin, I have a son about your age His name is..."
"Itachi...?" I whispered confused and light headed, the whisper in my heart repeated that word again and again. But what did a weasel have to do with anything? and why did it seem so important? That was most certainly what the voice in my heart was saying, but that made even less sense. It wasn't a feeling this time, it was a word. For the first time my heart was actually speaking in words, and it was telling me an entirely irrelevant one. Yet it felt like my whole world revolved around that one word 'Itachi'.
Great, now I really wanted to cry, my world was going revolve around a weasel! But wait...the woman had said something about a son didn't she? I thought desperately trying to distract myself so that I wouldn't accidentally cry at my insane revelation. He was my age, and she was going to tell me his name before I interrupted her. Now she was looking at me strangely, she almost seemed shocked about what I had said, but I don't see why. Unless her son was a weasel? Which, considering the situation I was in, didn't seem as strange as it should have.
"That's right... but how did you know?"She asked slowly shaking her head as if in denial. Honestly, I didn't even know what she was talking about. Maybe it was Itachi... that must be her son's name! Who names their son Weasel? But that would explain why she was looking at me so weird. I didn't know myself how I knew his name, but that stupid feeling knew, it knew Itachi for some reason, and I was immensely grateful that Itachi was a name. That made so much more sense to my poor brain.
But how do I tell her how I knew without sounding insane? How do I explain that a feeling I don't understand seems to know me better than I know myself? And knows other things that it never should, things a six year old girl should never even be able comprehend. It was impossible to explain, but she was waiting for an answer. I opened my mouth in the hopes something intelligent would come out, but a new voice beat me to it.
"I would imagine it's for the same reason that I know her name, right Korin?"His voiced sounded bored and I knew without needing to see him that his black eyes would be the same. The feeling in my chest finally exploded and the feeling of 'home' washed over me in waves and I felt tears in my eyes as I turned to see the owner of the voice. He was most definitely my age, but taller than me by about an inch, with black hair, equally black eyes, and pale skin.
He looked so familiar even though we had never met, I would have remembered him if I had seem him before, I was certain of that. Yet, I felt like I had known him for lifetimes, longer than my six years of life, and I could see the same recognition of me in his eyes. He knew me too, I felt whole. Finally, everything was exactly as it was suppose to be. There was no other way to explain it, like Itachi was my other half. I should have been terrified honestly. A normal child my age would have been in tears by now. Maybe that's why I was born so strange, my mother would always laugh and tell me I was just too old for my age. I never really understood what she meant until now. Until I was bombarded with the most intense emotions of my life and all I could think was how right it all was.
My mother had just died, I had wandered the streets with my infant sister for miles, ended up in a strangers house thanks to a voice I couldn't explain, and for whatever reason I was recognizing a boy, named after a rather unappealing animal mind you, was somehow my... what? Soulmate? And all I could think was how right it all was? Yeah... normal was not the word for me.
"What do you mean Itachi? Have you two met before?" His mother's voice ripped me out of my thoughts, she was walking towards us confusion evident in her eyes. She was trying to force a small smile on her face but I could tell it was just for my benefit.
"Yes and no. I know Korin, but I have never met her before now." He explained, which made sense to me because that was exactly how I felt. It only took a few steps for me to reach his side, I felt him relax next to me and I smiled. This whole thing was insane, and almost too much to take in at one time, but knowing I wasn't alone in what I was feeling made me feel infinitely better. I could handle anything as long as Itachi was always by my side. Which, again, should have made my feel weird, abnormal, anything but right.
"What are you talking about?" We could tell she didn't understand, and we knew it would take more than words to describe something we couldn't even understand, you have to experience it to understand it and his mother couldn't experience something that existed only between the hearts and minds of two children. It was impossible and we simply didn't care anymore, she would find her own explanation for it and it would satisfy her. For now my mind was occupied with Itachi and the future I could see unfolding in front of my eyes.
He would be powerful and I would stand beside him always. I would match him, be his equal in all things, and I would always follow him. He was my meaning, my reason and I was his. How we knew all of this at six years old, was, and will forever be, beyond me, but we did know and we didn't question it. It was pointless to question it, it was already written and laid out. We just had to follow the steps already mapped out to us.
"You're hungry." Itachi stated simply, bringing me back to the present, completely ignoring his mother and tugging me out of the nursery, leading the way to the kitchen. There was a simple lunch already laid out with two plates set up. He must have known I was coming even before I got here and had already prepared.
Typical Itachi. Always one step ahead of everything. I couldn't help the smile that lit up my face. I always was a happy child and now that I was here. In this house. With him. The death of my mother didn't seem nearly as tragic. I would miss her of course, I wasn't heartless and I had loved her dearly, but I had known she was going to die. Another unexplainable feeling. Just like the one whispering in the back of my mind, warning me of another tragedy that was hovering off in the distance. That one promised to be worse than anything I had experienced, or ever would experience again. I couldn't pinpoint when or what was going to happen, but I did know that Itachi was involved and it was going to be bad.
I let the gloomy thoughts sift from my mind as I set down, muttering a quiet thank you for the meal as my mother taught me and began to eat. Well, that was the plan at least but as soon as the first noodle registered on my taste buds I spit it back out and glared at the offending food. It wasn't hot or anything, oh no! It tasted aweful! I looked over at Itachi to find him glaring daggers at his own food as if the sheer power of the Uchiha-Death-Glare would be enough to scare the food into tasting good. He quickly learned that there were some problems even his glare couldn't fix, though he would never admit it out loud.
"Itachi, did you cook this?" I asked slowly pushing my bowl as far away from me as my arms could reach.
"You know I can't cook." He snapped pushing his own bowl away and doing the closest thing Itachi Uchiha would ever do to a pout, which meant he crossed his arms and glared even harder. I couldn't help the laughter that bubbled out of my mouth, he was glaring at the food like he fully expected it to catch fire and burn to ashes right then and there. But what had I expected from an Uchiha? Even a young genius couldn't be good at everything and it just so happened that cooking was not a skill young Itachi Uchiha possessed, it was a skill he would likely never possess and the knowledge of this weakness would never been released to the general public, at least not while he was in earshot.
Still laughing despite his attempting to glare holes in my head, I cleaned up the bowls and dumped the 'food' into the garbage. Scurrying around the kitchen I managed to put a new batch of ramen together with a few helpful 'hn's from Itachi. Soon we were sitting back down with a new lunch, after saying thanks we both picked up our chop sticks and hesitantly tasted the steaming noodles.
"I still got it!" I exclaimed happily chowing down on the delicious lunch, I used to help my Mother cook when she was alive, being in the kitchen had always been fun. Even if I wasn't your typical child. Mother was never bothered with the strange things I would say and do that were only just starting to make sense. For instance I loved mushrooms but had always refused to cook them, I had my suspicions now that the boy across from me probably despised mushrooms. My ramen however seemed to suit his tastes just fine. I couldn't keep the smile from my face as I watched him eat. He actually seemed to be enjoying his food,or he was until his Mother marched into the room. Hands on her hips and a glare that could rival Itachi, she effectively killed the park of joy in his eyes. I got the feeling that she was rather good at that.
AUTHORS NOTE: Ok, I had to stop the chapter somewhere, I figured here was as good as anywhere because I need to re-write the next part. I look forward to my reviews and I hope you like what I have so far.