~Death has an Offspring~

Chapter ONE – Perfect Family

Published 3rd May, 2016…

~Summary~

Kokoro has it tough, kidnapped, forced to be a ninja and consistently fighting for her freedom. What will she do when she finds out a secret that could end the world as everyone knows it? Shiro has had a very peaceful life, even for a Konoha ninja. What will he do after finding out who sheltered him from all his pain? A story about Friendship, Family and Resilience

On that day, I woke up with a grin on my face. I shouldn't have been grinning on that day, it was the start of the end so I always question myself why it felt so good... But maybe that day was just so perfect because it was the last perfect day…

The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was the poster on the roof above my bed. The poster was given to me last month by a passing gypsy lady who sought refuge in our house during a storm. The lady was stunningly beautiful, really nice and a dancer. She was on her way to Konoha for a performance. She did a little show for my family and I, and even showed me some moves. I decided that I wanted to be someone like her so before she left she gave me a promotion poster for her upcoming performance.

I imagined myself in the same position she was in the picture, dancing and twirling around, barefoot with long thin ribbons tied to each of her fingers that followed her hand movements like a stream of water.

With that thought, a grin formed on my face, right until I was jumped on.

"Toshi!" I kicked and screamed until I got my laughing three-year-old brother off me.

"Koko, Koko! Today going to be good! I just get that feeling!" He giggled and tried to jump onto me again. "Maybe Papa is coming! Wouldn't that be good!?"

"Toshi! Get off me, I'm you bigger sister so I'm the boss and I say get off me!" I pushed him out of my bed and onto the cold wooden floor with a thump and an 'owe'. I smirked. "Thank you! Now, what's this about Papa coming? You know he never turns up when he is expected right?"

"I just know Papa will come today; I just do, I just do!"

I tried to roll my eyes but Toshirou laughed at my attempt. I jumped out of bed and tried making it but it wasn't very neat, I wish I could do it as well as Mamma did. At least it was better than Toshi's unmade one.

We headed out into the hallway, Toshirou looked like he was debating whether or not to wake up Mum or play in the living room until she wakes herself. His eyes lit up and he headed further down the hallway towards Mamma's bedroom. I followed with a cheeky grin. We almost run down her old bedroom door and started bouncing on her creaky double bed, laughing and giggling loudly to wake her up.

"Wakey, wakey!"

"Rise and shine!"

"Get out of bed!"

"Today is fine!"

Suddenly Mamma pinned the two of us down and gave us a big hug without opening her eyes.

"No! The dragon got us! The dragon got us!" Toshirou wailed.

"I'm suffocating, I'm dying! The dragons going to eat us Toshi!" I started squirming.

Unexpectedly, Mamma stopped squeezing and rolled over on top of us, "This dragon needs her breakfast!" She started tickling Toshi's bare tummy and attacking mine with raspberries. It felt like the world was ending until she paused to give Toshi a go who inevitably kicked me in the stomach. "Alright, that's enough. Time to get the day rolling."

Mamma pulled herself out of bed and headed to the kitchen with us following after her much taller figure. She prepared our usual meals and fed us first before herself.

"Toast is much better!" Toshirou poked his tongue out at me. "Cereal is yuck! And toast is better!"

I fell for the bait, "Na! Cereal is the bomb! Cereal is for breaky, toasted sandwiches are for lunch and dinner is dinner. You're meant to follow the rules."

Mum laughed at us and we both stared at Mamma like she was the weird one. She joined us with her food and let us bicker until she sent us in to get dressed in yesterday's clothes so that she could start school. "Meet me in the classroom at 8 o'clock." I could tell she was testing us, to see if we could read the analogue clock. She taught Toshi how to write numbers this week and about clocks yesterday.

The class room was the small third bedroom of the little shack we lived in. Mum wanted to home-school us so when Toshirou was born she put the both of us in one room, she, and Papa when he was home, had the master bedroom and the third one became a classroom with one wall painted with blackboard paint.

I was given a worksheet to read that told me to colour in with certain colours which was really easy while Toshi learnt more of his A, B, Cs. At break time I picked on him like usual. I was so much better then him at school, but Mum butted in saying that that's only because I'm two years older. I still recon I'm better and that he's a baby.

The grin from this morning came back again as Toshirou and I were freed in the afternoon from the classroom, or as Toshi called it, the devil's room. Mamma said that we can have the afternoon off, whereas we usually would be outside working on our fitness and flexibility. We do that because she gets worried about bad people and wants us to be good enough to run away. It's stilly in my opinion, no one ever comes to our forest. Apparently there are lots of other grownups and other kids like us but some can be really mean, more mean than when Toshi and I are mean to each other. Although we haven't seen any of them. I don't think they are real and Mamma is just trying to scare us.

We ran outside into the sunlight before Toshirou swiftly tackled me into the grass.

"I'm stronger than you! I'm going to be the better ninja!" He tossed his hands up into the air with joy and that's when I attacked, knocking him off me, I rolled on top of him and put all my weight on him.

"Na, I win" I smirked and he pouted.

"Let's play ninja! I finally finished making enough kunai and shuriken for us to share." He climbed out from under me and ran back into the little wooden shack we called home. He returned with a big grin and his arms full of cardboard cut-out kunai and shuriken shapes. "We can play one of your games next."

I couldn't wait for my game, I think I'll get him to dress up as a girl and do his hair and we can have a dancing show for mum. "Actually! Why don't we play both ninja and my game?" I had an epiphany.

"What's your game?"

"We can be dancing girls wearing outfits who are secretly ninja and when we fight, we use dance moves too."

"Ewe! I don't want to be a dancer. If you have to dress me up I will be a ninja watching and we can team up against the baddies or we can just fight."

I scrunched up my face for a moment. "Fine! Can I still do your hair?"

Toshirou made a duck face but compliantly sat down and handed me one of the multiple hair pieces scattered on the ground near the back door.

"Yes! You're the best little brother in the world!

We played that game all afternoon. We pretended that we were enemies at the start then the trees came to life and attacked us; we had to team up to kill the trees. I was twirling around elegantly, well trying to, and dodging imaginary kunai that the trees were attacking us with and Toshi was aiming his paper shuriken at the tree when a real person jumped out.

Adrenalin ran through my veins as the figure pinned Toshirou's tiny screaming figure to the ground. I turned to run straight to mum inside the house, leaving Toshirou behind with the person on top of him.

Until the screams turned to laughter.

I spun around with wide eyes only to recognise the figure.

"Papa!? You scared the crap out of me!" I looked down to see my hands shaking.

Rapidly he disappeared from sitting on top of Toshirou to standing behind me, hands threateningly close to my tickle spot on my tummy. "Did I now?" A smirk played across his lips before he threw me up into the air above his head. The whoosh of the wind went past my head and I landed in his arms, dizzy. "Next time, do not ditch your brother. The two of you much stay by each other's side and protect each other. Never ever leave each other's side. Do you understand Kokoro, Toshirou?"

It took me a second to comprehend what he said after I got over the dizziness. I bit my lip. I knew that what I did was wrong. "I'm sorry Papa…"

"Good girl. Now what should you do?" He put me onto his shoulders as Toshirou jumped around at his feet.

I giggled, I was now tall, very tall. "Umm… yell for help but not leave him."

He smiled. "What if your mother was not around to help you?"

I furrowed my face at his question. "Why wouldn't mamma be here?"

"Just pretend, what would you do if your little brother was attacked and there wasn't help around?"

I was confused. My lip pouted and my brows lowered. I closed my eyes and zoned out the noise of Toshirou complaining about having a go and Papa talking to him so that I could think. That's when I heard it. It was like a heavy bird landed in the tall trees above, the branch crackled with the extra weight and the leaves rustled with the movement.

My oddly coloured eyes opened and I looked straight towards the sound; surprise on my face. It was almost like that part of the trees froze in time, if it was a bird it would have moved. Neither Papa nor Toshirou heard it over the sounds of their voice or the usual sounds of the forest.

"Um… Papa…?" I kept on glancing back at that spot.

Toshirou was suddenly flung onto Papa's back so that both of us were getting a ride.

"So Kokoro, did you work out what to do?" This time Papa's deep voice penetrated my thoughts.

"Um…"

"… I should have run up and distracted you for long enough for Toshi to get out and we both would do a runner into the forest towards the village." I started off slowly, still thinking about my answer then I sped up as I got more excited. The heavy 'bird' in the tree gone from my mind, Papa was finally back after being away for a week so I was too thrilled to think about it again.

I must have really been idiotic and naive back then. I wish beyond belief that I said something… but I didn't… I should have. I really should have… But I let it go… I forgot about the seaming insignificant incident until the following day… But that was too late…

Papa stayed for the night, all of us ate a big dinner together then Toshirou and I were sent to bed at nightfall but we stayed up till late whispering to each other.

Papa brought us a whole lot of new supplies so that we could eat without going back to the village for another week. He even brought extra so that we could have a big breakfast in the morning before he left.

Toshi and I awoke at the same time to the smell of something really good, it smelt like what heaven would smell like. We ran out of our room together without making our beds to be greeted by Papa in Mamma's cooking apron and the frying pan on the stove top.

"Papa! What are you cooking?"

"Are we in heaven? It smells so good!" Toshi complimented with his heterochromia eyes closed and his nose up in the air.

Papa grinned. "If you two go get dressed in some clean clothes then wake your mother up you will find out."

We ran back into our room and I hastily made my bed. When I turned around Toshirou was sitting on his unmade bed with his brows furrowed. "Toshi? Are you alright?"

His little brows lowered even more and his lips puckered. "Somethings different about today…"

I sat down next to him. "What's different?"

He lifted his head and stared straight into my eyes, almost looking for something. His eyes had a piercing gaze, the fact that his right eye was the same colour as mine but his left eye was completely opposite in colouring didn't help either. "The food smells too good. Almost like it shouldn't smell this good."

My head tilted in curiosity.

"Big sister, you know that you are the best and that I love you right?"

I almost fell back, "What's happening, is it the end of the world? I've never heard you say that to anyone but Mum, not even Papa."

He gave me a big grin but I could tell that he was hiding something. "I love you Koko. Can you please get something out for me to wear?"

A chuckle escaped my lips, he was just sucking up to me. I think. However, I already knew he couldn't properly dress himself on his own. He would probably forget to get out undies and socks and go a whole day without.

I found matching clothes and put them on his bed for him, undies, socks and all, like I usually have done every second day along with getting my own. It wasn't long before we knocked onto Mum's door to wake her up like 'good' children in front of Papa and we were all at the dining table.

Papa handed out sausages, bacon, eggs and toast to all of us.

"It's the bacon we could smell Toshi!" I cried happily as I handed him my toast and we dug in; the bacon disappearing from our plats first as the delicacy was such a rarity.

"Mamma, can I please have your bacon?" Toshirou said with food in his mouth.

"Me too! Papa can I have yours?" I followed suit.

Our parents laughed and glanced at each other. "You two can share all my bacon, Mummy hasn't had bacon in a long time so let her enjoy hers." Papa smiled as he halved his between the two of us.

We both supported the same grin as Mamma and Papa laughed. We didn't pay much attention to the adult's big people's talk that followed as we ate, it made no sense to the either of us. Breaky finished slowly, Toshirou took his time eating my piece of toast for some unknown reason and refused to let Papa leave until he was done.

"Toshi, are you done yet? Can we please leave the table, Papa?" I wined, Papa had a rule that whenever he was here we couldn't leave the table until everyone was done.

As soon as Toshirou put his last mouthful of toast in his mouth Mamma pulled his plate away from him. "Papa really needs to head off or he will be late for work, and that's not good Toshirou."

The boy wined, "But I have a bad feeling if Papa leaves…" His bottom lip was pouting.

I frowned at him, he had this weird ability to know what was going to happen and he only ever hinted to me about it, this was the first time I had seen him mention it to Mamma or Papa.

Papa ruffled my little brother's hair, "Don't worry mate, I will be alright, Mamma and Kokoro will be safe too because I will be back as soon as I can and you can protect them until then." He grinned, "Make sure you two help your mother with the washing up."

We all headed out the front and each gave Papa a hug before waving goodbye as he jumped up into the treetops and bounded away after waving.

"Mamma, when will Papa be back?" Toshi asked before I could, both our eyes were on her as we each held one of her hands.

"Hmmm, that's a good question." She giggled, "It all depends on when he can sneak away from work again." We sighed, same answer as always. "Come on, let's go back inside and clean up." She lead us back to the open front door to our old wooden home and into the hallway.

"Koko," Toshirou grabbed my hand and pulled us ahead, he was trying to get out of clean up duty. "Let's go pla-"

'Boom'

I was flung into a wall as something exploded at the other end of the house. My ears were ringing painfully as I curled into a ball. It hurt, it hurt! I bit my lip in pain as I tried to open my eyes only to see black before they starting to sting. I tried to breathe but I ended up coughing and gasping for air – the smoke was really thick.

It felt like a firework went off in the house.

I waved my hands around until I felt the wall behind me and used it to pull myself up. My ears hurt and the world was spinning but at least gravity told me which way was down so I went with that.

"Toshirou!" Another coughing fit started and my eyes burned from the smoke as I tried to feel around for my little brother. I froze when I kicked something with my foot, it was his leg. It was limp.

I felt around the wall until I found a doorway before dragging my little brother into the kitchen. The smoke was much thinner in here and I could finally see his face, open eyed and full of fear.

"Toshi!" I whispered as I shook his small body only to receive a moan. He was alive, he was awake but in shock.

I ran over to the kitchen sink and washed my hands before washing my stinging eyes and face before grabbing the face cloth, wetting it and cleaning the dirt from around Toshirou's eyes. With that, the boy finally woke up from this shocked state.

"Koko… ro" His eyes slowly followed me as I checked over his body for injuries, I couldn't bare seeing my little brother hurt and in such a state. Suddenly realisation dawned on his face, "Kokoro wha-!"

My hand was on his mouth in a heartbeat. "Shhh!"

His daunting eyes were wide with fear and innocence. Papa's words from yesterday echoed in my head, 'Do not ditch your brother. The two of you much stay by each other's side and protect each other. Never ever leave each other's side'.

Along with those words, the heavy 'bird' in the tree came to mind but I didn't dwell on it.

"Don't worry, I will protect you. We will get out of this together." I whispered, his reply was a nervous smile. "Do as I say, we must work together." He nodded.

A figure passed the other side of the kitchen window and I noticed at the last moment. I jumped to my feet and grabbed Toshi pulling him into the corner of the room, away from the door and window. That was definitely not Mamma or Papa outside. We curled into a ball with the wall behind us, hugging each other and both shivering in fear. My eyes did not leave the doorway.

The fact that I just put a larger distance between ourselves and our escape crossed my mind but I didn't know what else to do. We didn't know where Mamma was and for all I know, that bad person in the window could have taken her. All I could do was hope that my decision to stay put was the right one.

That's when we heard the footsteps.

Toshirou's grip on my waist tightened.

The footsteps were slow and irregular.

Why wouldn't they be consistent, running…? "…Mamma?" I said it without thinking, I do that a lot.

The footsteps stopped. I felt Toshi shiver with fear. He didn't believe it was Mamma. It took only one more footstep before a shadow appeared. Toshi's grip felt strangling.

"… Kokoro!?" Mamma's voice was hushed and shocked as she stepped out of the smoke and coughed. She noticed that we were both here, "Are you both okay?"

We nodded with big wide eyes, she hesitated at our combined stare. She had said previously that our eyes were not normal and it still startled her sometimes.

She ushered us over to her near the door just as we heard another bang outside and a shout from the front door. "Crap!" Her eyes flashed in the direction of the front door before going back to us, "They're… burglars, they can have our stuff, just stay together."

I eyed her for a moment, thinking about that heavy 'bird' again, I could tell that Mamma didn't believe what she had said. That worried me.

She roughly grabbed our hands and almost dragged us behind her as she ran into the hallway towards the backdoor. She stopped so quickly that we both ran into her legs.

We poked our hands around her figure only to see the burglar clearly. He was scarier than any burglar I had ever pictured in my mind. He was large and full of muscles under his dark clothes and had a black balaclava over his face with only his eyes showing. However, the scariest thing about the man wasn't the face mask; it was the small pouch at his thigh, the weirdly shaped knife in his hand and the look in his eyes. His eyes were calculating, knowing; it felt like he knew everything about me, even the things that I didn't know.

In that moment I knew. I knew that he wasn't a burglar. He didn't want our stuff. This was a real ninja. He was eyeing Toshirou and I like we were food and Mamma was just in the way.

Mamma's movement was quick, quicker than anything I have ever seen from her. One second I was standing in the hallway beside the closed bedroom door and the next second I was in said bedroom with Toshirou beside me and the door slammed shut.

Toshi and I were too slow to comprehend what happened. I had my hand on the doorknock when we heard the burglar speak.

"Give me the children and you won't be hurt." It was an order. His voice was deep and abrupt; straight to business. "Neither will they if you hand them over without any fuss."

"Who are you?" Mamma's voice was much more high pitched then his and it shook at the beginning.

"Me? My name is Mister Macho." he mocked as he gave an evil chuckle, "If I am wearing a mask, why would I tell you my name. All you need to know is that you need to give me the children."

Toshi and I gulped. Mister Macho. That was the name of a superhero in one of Toshirou's favourite bedtime story books. But this time he was not a hero. Did the ninja know that?

Toshi tugged on my arm and pulled me away from the door. "We need to get out."

Mamma put us in here to escape, why hadn't I realised that already. I scanned the room, my bed was on the farthest wall and Toshirou's was on the wall closest to the door. We each had a stool as a bedside table and a cheap bookshelf was at the end of my bed with a handful of books in it. There was a small window on the wall between the heads of the two beds but it was really high from the floor. That took all of half a second for my brain.

We could use the window as an escape… I could reach using the stool if I was on my tippy toes. I glanced at Toshi, he was too short. He wouldn't reach and the stools were too unstable for me to lift him higher… The bookshelf! If we could get the bookshelf under the window we could climb up it like a ladder! Then we would be able to see while we unlatch the lock and easily climb out!

My whole thought process happened in a matter of two seconds.

"Toshi, window, bookshelf." I whispered.

He didn't need more than that to understand what I meant as we both started clearing out the bookshelf to make it lighter.

That's when we heard a second unknown voice from the hallway. "You're trapped, give us the children."

I bit my lip as we finally got the bookshelf below the window. There was more than one. How many I wonder?

I climbed up onto the window ledge and unlocked the glass. Toshi climbed up behind me he went out first, I lowered him down before I jumped down onto the ground. I looked back up to the window. Would Mamma follow?

Suddenly something silver flew between the two of us and landed on the wall. We froze. It looked like a small four pronged knife, Papa had things like this. Toshirou had called them shuriken. It was dangerous. My eyes flashed to where it came from.

"Hi!" An old voice mocked. "Only naughty children sneak out of windows."

I froze with fear but suddenly the world opened. It was almost like I had my eyes closed my entire life until then. I could see everything around me, even behind me in such detail. Our old wooden house was burning near the front, the window above was still jarred open and there was a third 'burglar' standing out in the open smirking at us. How had we not noticed him before.

The large man took a step forward and lazily threw two more star like blades at each of us. Time felt like it slowed down as it flew through the air and I easily ducked down then to the left to avoid the second one. Toshi somehow dodged them too.

The man's eyes sharpened. That's not good. "They are trained!" He bellowed before grabbing a handful more star blades and aimed them at us.

I knew my fear was evident on my face as the two of us ran parallel to the house, dodging the blades without having to look at them. I could see everywhere including where my eyes weren't looking.

Another figure stepped around the corner just before we got to it as the star blades stopped raining. I almost sighed as the figure turned into Mamma, however she was battered and bruised. My eyesight could tell that she was bleeding from her arm and a large bruise was forming on her leg.

Toshirou and I spun around just in time to see another weirdly shaped knife, I think Toshi called them kunai, land deep between the man's eyes. I wanted to puke.

Mamma grabbed our hands and started racing towards the tree line of the forest that surrounded our house. I could barely keep up. At some point my eyesight went back to normal and I felt like my eyes had closed, the difference between the two was almost as bad as suddenly going blind.

The two large men in balaclavas and dark clothing quickly started chasing us. My heartbeat was racing as I jumped over a trip hazard. Suddenly one of the men hit the ground with a thump and the second slowed to a stop only to find out that he man was dead with another kunai in his forehead.

A moment later Mamma abruptly pulled us to a stop and I stopped focusing on where to put my feet and onto what was in front of us. Four more men now stood in front of us as the Mr Macho burglar came up behind us. Behind their masks, they were all smirking.

And that's when the second explosion went off…

Pain

I was thrown into the air and harshly hit the ground, suddenly all the pain I was feeling disappeared in an instant. It was not a good feeling, for some reason I wanted that pain back. I felt empty. Like my body was gone.

I couldn't move, I couldn't hear anything, and the smoke was obscuring my vision.

Mamma… Papa… Toshi…

My vision became blurry with tears.

I don't want to lose anyone!

My world started shaking before I could focus on Mamma's face which was hovered over mind, her lips moving but no sound was coming out, her eyes welling up with tears.

She froze as if she heard something and she fearfully turn her back on me.

From my spot on the ground behind her, somehow, I could see what was scaring her clearly. My eyes had opened up again.

Mr Macho held him in the air by his hair with a kunai to his throat. Toshirou's right foot was bleeding profusely and he had a burn on his arm. But worst of all was the fear in his heterochromia eyes.

I couldn't move, time slowed almost to a stop as Mr Macho sliced Toshi's throat open, blood spurted out and darkness finally overcame me.

My peaceful, perfect life, ended on that day… I was only five years old…

Authors Note

I have to apologise for writing a new story and not updating my main one for so long. The plot bunnies have run away at the moment so this is what I ended up with when I tried to write.