A/N: This is something I have planned... It takes place in my As The Masks Crack universe, about 20 years post The Last movie. I currently am in the middle of Camp NaNo, plus ATMC and several other ongoing fics, but what the heck. This will probably only be updated very sparingly, but it will be updated, so long as the plot cooperates. That's what's caused many of my other fics to stall... so we'll see how this goes.

Without further ado... Enjoy!

~Penelope

United in Blood
Part I: Virus

Summary:
For the first time in hundreds of years, the Ninja World is at peace. A hard won peace, spearheaded by the reign of the Sixth Hokage, and brought to completion by the Seventh. But there are those, robbed of purpose, who flounder, and their desperation will lead them to grab hold of a cause that will threaten every good thing Naruto worked so hard for.

Prologue

Round child's hands clapped together in perfect hand signs. They moved with as much fluidity and elegance as any skilled chunin, proving this young ninja's level as far above her peers. The pause at the last sign was of appropriate duration, as she focused her chakra and then splayed her right palm toward the sky. She curled her small fingers, frowned hard and ground her jaw, and the man observing her could clearly envision her funneling her chakra to her hand. After all, it was a technique he had performed hundreds of times over. Sparks began circling on her pale skin.

That's it…

While he tried to hide the fact that he was leaning forward in anticipation, she gave a swift stomp of her foot, and the dam that was the surrounding peaceful silence collapsed. No longer could the man hear the sounds of the training field around them, or the distant hum of his family in the nearby compound. The wind practically died. For the howl of a thousand birds pierced the air instead, declaring to all the world that a budding Lightning user had just learned her signature jutsu.

The beam on her face was the best part, though. She grinned at her sparkling hand, the bright electric blue of her own pulsating chakra casting odd, flickering shadows across her face.

"Chidori…" she breathed, watching the lightning in awe, until her great grin had relaxed into reverence.

He held his own smile beneath the thick black mask that he always wore, and this one only grew wider at her obvious wonder. He cupped his calloused hands to his mouth, to call over the shriek of the lightning crackling in her palm.

"Perfect, Kori!" he said. Once he had her attention, he lowered his hands, but kept his voice loud. "Now, go ahead and let it dissipate."

Her fair little brow furrowing in concentration once more, she eyed her hand as she slowly cut off the flow of chakra. In a few short seconds, the Chidori fizzled out with a few dying chirps and two last rebellious flickers of static. The quiet that followed seemed eerily so, but could not last long in the face of what had just happened.

Kori grinned at her own hand, then up at her father, before clenching her fingers into a fist. "Yes!"

"Atta girl," said Kakashi Hatake, his eyes curving in what was his signature smile. "Absolutely perfect."

With a titter of girlish laughter, she sprinted forward and threw herself at him in what was certainly a tackle disguised as a hug, one which he gladly intercepted and turned into more of a 'grab her and swing her upside down', until he had her thrown over his shoulder the wrong way up. She squirmed and protested, but being a mere seven years old, had no hope of fighting him.

"Daddy," she bemoaned, donning a severe pout on her round face, "please put me down. I'm getting lightheaded."

A chuckle rumbled in his throat, and he tried not to sound too amused. "Well, since you asked so nicely…" He flipped her back over with all the gentleness of a father who wouldn't dare harm his daughter, unintentionally or not, and set her on her feet, making sure the girl was steady before releasing her. As soon as she was free, she scampered back to her place, and planted her feet.

"Teach me another one!" she demanded, her icy eyes speaking volumes of just how serious she was.

He let out the sigh that built from his lungs at that, and flopped into a sitting position amidst the clover-speckled grass that blanketed the field. "Another one? Maybe tomorrow. We have been at this for a few hours, now."

"You used to train your students for days!" she argued, expression growing even more intense. It was almost enough to make him laugh again, but experience had taught him the results of showing his amusement at her vehemence.

So he just let his head droop to convey his weariness. "Yes, well, as much as I hate to admit it, I'm not as young as I was then. Daddy's getting old."

"You're not old." She crossed her arms, raising her chin in defiance of his statement.

He eyed her from under the fringe of silver hair that hung over his eyes, loosened from its usual hitai-ate keeper. "Is that so?"

She gave a firm nod. "Forty-five's not old, Daddy. You still have at least another forty years before you get really old."

"Who said I was forty-five?" He dodged the latter statement in favor of getting a small rise out of her.

Kori scowled, as expected. "I can do math!"

"That's not fair; you're not supposed to know how old I am. I'm supposed to be young and strong and handsome in your mind forever."

At this, she rolled her white-lashed eyes and took a few meandering steps toward him before she followed his example and plopped onto the ground, leaning back on her palms. "I know how growing up works, too. You'll always be Daddy, but you won't always be young and handsome."

He withered under her brutal honesty, though an inner part of him was glad to see he'd taught her well. "You don't have to remind me…"

She had left out 'strong', though. That was nice of her.

"Though, I guess you'll always be handsome to Mama," said the girl, staring up at the lazy clouds drifting across a canvas of periwinkle. "There's always that."

His face broke out in a smile almost on instinct. That tended to happen when the other most important woman in his life was brought up. "Hm, that is true…"

"Don't make that face!" Kori wrinkled her nose at him. "It's weird."

"What? What'd I do?"

"That's the face you make when you think about kissing Mama."

He raised his eyebrows, both at her declaration and her intuition. "And what's so wrong with that?"

"Well, I don't need to see that face…"

She said it with such seriousness that he could no longer help the laughter it brought, and his shoulders were soon shaking in his mirth, while Kori just scowled.

"Don't laugh at me!"

Kakashi did his best to stifle his giggling fit, attempting to quicken the process by clapping a hand over his own mouth, in hopes of muffling any lingering snickers.

"I'm sorry… I won't do it again." He gave her his best innocent look.

One quirk of her own snowy eyebrow conveyed the depths of her belief. And she guffawed. "Yeah, right…"

He feigned hurt. "Kori, you wound me. Don't you trust me?"

"Mostly."

"Only mostly?"

"Mm-hm."

"Well, that hurts my feelings."

"And?"

More than any conversation in his life—more than those talks with Team Seven, more than those few impactful discussions with Iruka or Mo or Tenzo, more than even that ethereal chat he'd had with his father after falling to Pein—Kakashi cherished these talks with his children. They were all so bright and unique, with their own ways of seeing the world, and it was so utterly fascinating. To think that he and Tsuki had come together, with their own differing characteristics, and despite any genes, their offspring could develop into such individuals, completely separate from them. Truly a wonder.

"Will you teach Obito the Chidori too someday?" Kori asked.

Kakashi nodded. "Probably. If he's a Lightning nature."

"I'm not a Lightning nature."

"Yes, well… you're you, and Obito is Obito. You learned Fire nature easily, and as I recall, you were the one who asked to learn Lightning next."

Of all his children, Kori was the most ambitious. She looked at everything the future held for her as an up-and-coming shinobi, stared it all square in the eye, and said 'bring it on'. She wanted to learn everything there was to know, as much as her young mind could handle, and if she ran out of things to master on one level, she moved on to the next. She'd only just entered the Academy, and she was already complaining about the classes being too easy.

'Another Hatake prodigy in the making' the Council said.

Thankfully, this Council held far fewer power-mongers than the last one.

"…Koinu could be better at lots of things, but he really doesn't try very hard," Kori was saying, and Kakashi realized he'd lost track of what she was talking about. Apparently, something concerning her older brothers. "Those eyes are wasted on him… And Sokka, well, he could be good too, but he just can't see, so it's not like he can do much. And Obito's only five."

"I was five when I joined the Academy," he countered.

She gave a leisurely shrug of her small shoulders. "That's you, Daddy. Obito's not like you."

"Maybe, maybe not." Kakashi shrugged right back at her. "It's really up to each individual person what goals they set for themselves, and how quickly they achieve them."

She pursed her lips. "Hm… But if you're not doing anything, then you're not accomplishing anything, and there's really no reason for you to be there. Right?"

"Not necessarily."

"Daddy, if something's pointless, then you get rid of it."

"Sometimes."

"Why's that?"

He had to smile a little. She was so intelligent, and it made him pleased beyond words. "If something's pointless just because it's broken, you can fix it. If something is pointless because it's still growing, then you can nurture it until it's strong enough to handle the job it was meant to do."

"And what if something was made to do something, but then doesn't?" Kori tilted her head to one side, keeping her vibrant gaze leveled at her father. "It's pointless then, and if it can't do the job it was meant to do, why keep it?"

"Hmm…" He pinched his chin between his fingers, genuinely pondering the questions his daughter posed. To not do so would be to do her a great disservice. "You have a valid point. I'll have to think about that one."

She nodded once in acknowledgement of his deference, before she turned to glance toward the compound wall. "Dinner time."

As if on cue, Tsuki's voice called from inside the compound. "Kakashi! Kori! Dinner."

Kakashi gave a short, wry laugh at his daughter's show of sensory prowess, before returning his wife's call. "We're coming!"

Silence followed and let them know she had heard, and Kori heaved a short sigh. "She doesn't even bother to climb to the top of the wall… You married a really lazy lady, Daddy."

The ex-Copy Nin blushed and scratched the back of his neck, though despite his outward embarrassment, he spoke fondly. "Heh, your mother just prefers to put forth effort where it's needed…"

The little Hatake girl rolled her eyes, and rocked to her feet. She stood there, stared at the sky for a short moment, and then offered him her hand.

"Need help getting up, old man?"

His mask concealed his smirk, and he faked a weary moan as he wrapped her tiny fingers in his long, tapered, war-hardened ones. "Yes, thank you, young grasshopper. Your kindness is appreciated."

He made himself weightier than he should have the first few moments she tried dragging him up, keeping his knees slack and his balance settled back. She caught on rather quickly though, and abruptly let him go to topple back into the grass. He got up himself next time.

She did let him hold her hand as they walked back to the house. Or, that was how she might say it had any of her peers happened to see. But he knew she was his little girl, and she wouldn't have it any other way.

Even if he wouldn't always be young and handsome.

Reviews are love! ^.^