It was request that I write a story where Kotaro is a child and Sasuke and Kasuga have to take care of him. I think I went a little off the lines of the request, but I hope you guys like it.
Shingezane is a real character not an OC. He's historically Masamune cousin and one of the great men of Oshu. Also when I mention Masamune covered in gold it's because historical Masamune was very flamboyant and showy when it came to meeting other lord wars. He was also.
Okay lets do this
Looking back at it, Sasuke still couldn't figure out how things had worked out so well.
It had started when he was out on look out. He ended up bumping into Kasuga on the way there. They were both investigating the rumors that there may still be a survivor in the Hojo. People who had gone in before them almost never came out. The few that did came back horribly mutilated. The best theory they had, was that someone from the Fuma clan must be seeking revenge.
"I don't think anything is here." Kasuga sighed as they went through the castle again.
"If it's a ninja the odds are he's waiting from us to let our guard down before he attacks." Sasuke pointed out.
"I'm just saying, he may not be in the castle right now. He could be anywhere in the village."
"You're right." The ninja sighed.
Just as he said that he felt something kick him in the back. He rolled with the hit instead of trying to work against it. Kasuga took the chance to lunge at the figure only for it to disappear into feathers. It reappeared behind her, but Sasuke was ready. He threw one of his knifes to come straight down on their attacker while Kasuga attacked the front, and he defended the back.
He was gone again, barley dodging the blows. When he did come back at them he had his swords drawn. Kasuga and Sasuke fought their hardest. It wasn't until about an hour later they caught him; mostly because he was exhausted. He tried to run into the broken part of the castle but found himself corner.
"Sasuke, you have to see this." Kasuga said in awe now that he had the figure boxed in.
"What?" Sasuke asked rolling his stiffed shoulders.
"Look!"
Hidden in a pile of broken wood was a boy no older that six. His read hair had fallen all over his face. Even though he was tired he still kept up his defensive stance holding one dagger in front of him.
"He's probably around the same age as Yukimura." Sasuke said as he got closer, "You don't think that this is the legendary ninja do you?" He said jokingly as he wrestled the knife from the boy and pulled him out of the heap.
"Could be," Kasuga took the boy from Sasuke's arm. The boy still kicked in protest despite the fatigue. "How long do you think he was here by himself?" She could feel the boy's bones through his clothes.
"There's no telling." Sasuke said. "How do you think people are going to react to being beat by a kid?" He chuckled before getting serious, "I know our orders were to "take care of the problem" but I have issues with killing a kid.
"Same." Kasuga set the boy down, but kept a hand on his shoulder so he couldn't run away. "What's your name?"
The boy responded by opening his mouth.
Sasuke keeled down as well to help, "What did people call you by." He tried saying it differently.
The boy made a huff noise before pointing into his mouth.
The older too looked inside like the boy wanted him to. Sasuke almost threw up with what he saw.
The boy's tongue had been cut from his mouth. He could tell from the looks of the few pieces of flesh that were left inside.
Sasuke was going to ask who did this, but realized that he couldn't answer.
"We can't just leave him here!" Sasuke said. "Legendary ninja or not, he's still a child."
"I don't think that Ichigo will be to please to have a child that needs to be taken care of."
"Takada won't mind. It's a very traditional clan and we all look after each other."
The boy must of picked up on the fact that they were planning on taking him from the castle, because he darted away from them.
"Shit," Sasuke snarled. Sure the boy was still most likely tired, but it was still going to be difficult to catch him. The boy was fast, even though he couldn't tellaport at the moment, he dodged all of their attacks almost flawlessly. They were trying not to hurt him as they cased, but it was looking like the only way to catch him would be to wound him. Finally the young ninja's moves seemed to faulted. He stumbled a bit while running, and fell on his face.
A noise of frustration ripped from his throat as he tried to get up, but he was tired, and weak from fighting. He basically went limp as Sasuke picked him up again.
"Kasuga can you pass me a blanket out of the pack." She did, and helped him wrap the boy.
"We need to get him something to eat." Kasuaga said.
"Yeah, but he doesn't have a tongue. We need something that he can swallow."
"We can give him water for right now. You know were going to have to take turns watching him tonight. He we fall asleep he might run off."
Sasuke sighed. "And here I thought I got one of the easier missions. I'll take the first shift."
Kasuga nodded handed Sasuke one of the small canteens of water in case Fuma woke up. The boy was still being a bit fussy, but for the most part he was asleep. Neither of them really slept that night.
Most of the morning was then spent, trying to find a way to communicate to the boy.
"We could just teach him sign language." Kasuga suggested.
"That could take weeks, maybe months just for him to be able to say simple phrases."
"It's the only thing we can do he side head nods." Kasuga defended arms crossed. "Besides, if he's this skilled of a ninja then the odds are that he learns quickly."
Sasuke was about to say something sarcastic back when the boy pulled on the leg of his pants. Once he had his attention he started to move his hands.
"I already know sign language." He signed.
Sasuke squatted down to be eye level. "What's your name?" He asked.
"Kotaro Fuma."
"So he is apart of the Fuma clan." Sasuke sighed. He knew that Shingen would let the boy stay but the villagers might not be too happy about it.
"We're going to take you to Takada." Sasuke explained, expecting the child to bolt. He didn't. "It's not safe for you to stay here by yourself."
The boy nodded. He was probably tired of being alone. "Just let me get my things." He signed.
They could tell the boy was very reluctant. This was most likely the only home he'd ever know, being such a young ninja.
"Don't go too far ahead you'll get lost." Sasuke warned as they jumped through the trees.
"I already know the way." Fuma signed. "I go in and out of there all the time. Mostly on Tuesdays at night though."
Sasuke gawked. Tuesday's were his shift for watching the boarders. There's no way that...
"He is a Fuma." Kasuga said as if know what he was thinking.
"Yeah, yeah." He sighed. The thought of being out done by a kid.
When they got to the gates of the village it right around high noon. Sasuke insisted that Kotaro held his hand so he could keep track of him. He wasn't looking forwards to his adiance with Shingen, but he had to ask before Kotaro could be allowed in the clan. He knew he would say yes, but there would be a lot of questions that came before that.
He was right. He and Kasuga sat before Shingen as they explained what happened and what their plan was. Shingen looked at the boy and have him come up to have his mouth inspected.
"He really is missing his tongue. Have one of the doctors look at this." Shingen said directly to Kasuga.
The female ninja nodded picking the boy up and heading for the medicine hut. Sasuke knew that the injury wasn't infected, and sighed as he watched them go. Shingen could of just asked to speak to him privately.
"You do realize that he'll need special care." The Tiger spoke.
"Only when it comes to preparing his food, which I'll doubt he'll need much help with. He was living on his own for this long, he can pretty much take care of himself."
"Taking care of isn't raising. He's been around nothing but murder all his life. If I remember him correctly he made his first kill when he was five. He has no moral compass, he's does what he's told and nothing more."
"Sounds like the perfect kid to me."
"I'm serious Sasuke. He'll need special attention and monitoring. You already look after Yukimura on your own..."
"And look at how perfect that kid is. You couldn't find a nicer six year old in the area." Sasuke pointed out. "My parenting skills are amazing. I can handle another child. Besides, Kasuga plans on helping me."
"It's not good for a child to move from home to home."
"You said yourself he's basically a trained assassin. We don't like to stay still. I'm only here because I'm Yukimura's guard. If I could have my way I wouldn't be in the same place twice. If he's able to travel, he won't run away."
Shingen sighed, "I'll leave you to your own devises. If things start to go wrong."
"They won't, you said yourself that he's an obedient child." Sasuke said as he bowed to leave. It was a short trip to the medical hut. By the time he got there Kasuga was already waiting.
"The doctor said he's fine." Kasuga said. "He can only have liquids though. Without his tongue he won't be able to move food around his mouth to be chewed properly, and he can't swallow well either."
"That means grinding all of his food." Sasuke looked down at the boy who wasn't showing signs of interest of anything in the clan. He must not of lied about coming through here a lot.
"I have to get back to Lord Keshin." Kasuga said. "I'll explain what happened and send word back of his decision." With that she disappeared.
"How about I introduce you to someone your age." Sasuke asked the boy, who shrugged his shoulders. "Come on."
Yukimura was practicing his hand writing in his room when they walked in.
"Sasuke, you came back!" The tiger cub stopped what he was doing to run up and hug Sasuke as tight as he could. "Some of the men told me that you went to fight this really strong ninja and that you were going to die." The boy was close to tears.
"Hey, you really think I would lose that easily?" He knelled down to be eye level with the boy. "Anyways I want you to meet someone. This is Fuma Kotaro, he's going to be staying with us from now on."
Yukimura beamed at the though of a new friend. He turned to the other boy, "I am Sanada Genjuro Yukimura. It's nice to meet you." He bowed.
Fuma made a few hand signals, not caring if Yukimura didn't know what he was saying. Sasuke was going to have to translate for the poor boy.
"I was practicing my calligraphy." Yukimura beamed. "Do you want to see."
Kotaro nodded following Yukimura to the little table.
So, Yukimura knows ninja code and sign language. Sasuke thought. The kid was a lot smarter than he acted. He came off as a bit of an air head, but he was very intelligent. He caught on to things a lot quicker than most boys his age. He sat and watched the two of them talk and write with each other.