Disclaimer: Foolish mortal that I am, I do not own Naruto. But I own Kakashi. Shhhhh.
Higurashi House
Prologue: Safe Haven
In ancient times, there were many clans in the shinobi world. Most have since fallen into decline. A few have died out in their entirety. Some have only a few members remaining. Two of these latter were once great and powerful. The Uchiha clan of the Land of Fire. And the Higurashi clan of the Land of Fire.
They were rivals; bitter enemies. The Uchiha possessed a bloodline trait that allowed them to copy any jutsu, along with powers of hypnosis and manipulation of the mind. They were feared, but they were also respected. The Higurashi possessed a bloodline trait that allowed them to repel any attack – jutsu or otherwise. This came with a rather large store of chakra and an impressive propensity for the healing arts.
Their rivalry was mostly political, for a fight between any members of each clan would have been pointless. Neither relied on their own jutsus. The Higurashi employed a defensive form of fighting. The Uchiha did also, if to a slightly lesser degree.
After many decades of this enmity, the Second Hokage passed a law that prevented any interaction between the two clans. No fights, which would be mutually destructive and highly dangerous to any bystanders. No marriages, either, for a child with the ability to copy jutsus and to repel them would have been just as dangerous, perhaps even more so.
The Higurashi clan lived in relative obscurity.
They did not go out of their way to interact with others, but stayed in their compound about 5 miles from Konoha. They married mostly within the clan, and by this inbreeding they gradually began to die out. At the time of the Fourth Hokage, they had declined to three small families. These three, in an effort to preserve their clan, had sent 5 children to Konoha, to train as shinobi like the Higurashi had not done in over a century.
The five children were to become highly ranked ninja, and were then to marry other highly ranked ninja and thus perpetuate the clan. The four boys and the one girl lived in Konoha for years, training, working, and moving up in the ranks.
In the meantime, the three remaining families worked at the mansion that was all that was left of the great Higurashi Houses. These Houses were something of a legend. It was said that any traveler – shinobi or otherwise – could find safe haven in these house, one in each of the principal territories. The Higurashi asked no questions and gave no answers. Missing nin and ANBU often found themselves sharing room and food, and having their wounds treated equally.
No arrests were allowed on the premises of these Houses. No fights, no arguments, no assassinations, nothing. The Higurashi backed up their rules with their powerful kekai genkai and their immense chakra.
During the time of the Fourth Hokage, when the last five children of the Higurashi clan were sent to Konoha to train, there was only on of these remaining. Set by the road in the Land of Fire, it declined so much that very few travelers even knew of its existence.
It went out of business entirely when the Nine Tail Fox attacked Konoha.
The five children were among the casualties that day – although the body of the girl was never found – and the rest of the clan mysteriously died a few years after, when the massacre of the Uchiha clan took place.
Some laughed at the irony – the bitter enemies laid low within the same week, and, it was suspected, by the same person. Uchiha Itachi wiped out his own clan, and easily dispatched the paltry remains of their hereditary rivals.
The House stood for 6 years from that point, alone and dying, and it was rumored that the ghosts of the slain children walked its halls and lit its lamps from time to time. But no one bothered with the rumors. After all, it was just a house where anyone could stay. If they could find it.
The woman bent low in the swiftly falling rain and tore up a shoot from the ground. She examined it carefully, then placed it in the wide basket on her arm. She hummed softly, a lullaby that hung in the moist air like fog. Suddenly, her head jerked up, her eyes narrowed, and she took off her wide-brimmed hat and cupped a hand about her ear.
Basket and hat fell to the ground unattended as she leapt to the treetops and ran to look down upon three figures in a clearing.
Two boys slumped against a tree, breathing heavily. The blonde one was covered in faint scratches that were healing as she watched, and the black-haired boy's right arm dangled limply by his side. They supported between them an unconscious pink-haired girl, whose head was bandaged. Rivulets of blood dripped from it, mingling with the rain to bathe her in its heat.
The blonde turned blue eyes to meet the red ones of his companion, and said in a voice filled with a despondency that took the other by surprise, "She isn't going to make it, is she, Sasuke?"
The raven head turned almost imperceptibly, and Sasuke whispered, "We have to keep moving, Naruto."
Naruto narrowed his eyes. "Answer my question, you bastard!"
"Shut up and walk, dobe."
"Walk where? Konoha's not next door!"
Sasuke whipped his head around, spraying Naruto with droplets of water. "We just have to keep moving. They'll be following soon, if they aren't already."
Naruto took a step forward and tripped over the girl's outstretched foot. He fell face first in the mud, leaving Sasuke to clutch their burden with his one good arm. Blue eyes glared into red, and Naruto began to rant.
"So, they're following. We already killed three of them! What about Kakashi-sensei, hmm? What about him? What about us, Sasuke! We can't keep going like this! Sakura needs medical attention, and we can't give it to her! Kakashi-sensei could, but, oh no, we have to keep running so that he can't find us and stop her from dying!"
Sasuke gently lowered Sakura's body to the ground, and sat beside Naruto. "So, we killed three of them. But my arm is broken and Sakura is half dead and you…well…you're just a freak. And it's more likely that the other shinobi will find us than that Kakashi-sensei will."
The boys continued to argue as the rain continued to fall.
Sakura's face became more and more pale, and when she reached out and tugged weakly at Naruto's jacket he nearly leaped into Sasuke's arms.
She smiled weakly as the two bent over her, concern written plainly on Naruto's face and just a little visible in Sasuke's impassive mien. She opened her lips to speak but Naruto laid a grubby finger over them, silencing her. "You're going to be okay, Sakura-chan. We'll take care of you, we promise."
Sasuke nodded slightly, and a small smile graced Sakura's features.
"You're a horrible liar," she whispered before sinking once more into unconscious oblivion.
"She's dead!" Naruto screamed, "I told you she'd die, you heartless bastard!"
Sasuke pointed to the shallow rise and fall of Sakura's chest and muttered, "She isn't dead, dobe. Are you that blind?"
They launched into yet another argument, and this was when the woman in the tree decided that she'd had enough. She alighted on the ground to be met with several Naruto's holding kunai.
"Shadow clones, I see. Very well done for such a young shinobi. May I be of any assistance?" Seeing the wary looks on the faces of the two real genin, who has arranged themselves in defensive postures in front of Sakura's body, she let out a grim laugh.
"Very well then. I can be of assistance, and I will be. Step aside and allow someone who knows what they're doing to treat this poor girl."
Purple lights flashed in the clearing as the multiple Naruto's threw their weapons and were almost simultaneously punctured by their own kunai. They disappeared into clouds of smoke and the woman advanced, looking decidedly ticked off.
"I'm a Leaf kunoichi, " she announced, "and I honestly do not want to see any of you die. There are pursuers in these woods, so you'd all better get a move on and come with me. Your sensei can find you later – for now you've got to move or be moved – you're choice. I can easily knock the both of you out and carry all three of you to safety, but I'd rather not. It's your choice."
She pushed sopping brown curls from her eyes and waited, hands on hips, for their response.
A/N: After re-writing three re-writes of this chapter (shut UP! I keep losing them! No seriously – I have too many computers that I store my files on. --;), I have finally decided to repost. I know, I know, I said that it'd be up by the end of January, but the end of February ain't half bad, now, is it? Do please tell me what you think…it's a bit different from the original, but not much. The next chapter should be updated and up soon enough, so…read on!
