i do not own Naruto!

The third Hokage was thoroughly enjoying this nice and quiet evening. Almost all of the missions had been completed and finalized, the paper work was finished just a half hour ago, and there was this nice warmth coming in through the window behind him. Ohh yes it was a nice afternoon to relax in the office and just take a load off.

'Hmm, Kakashi should be returning sometime later from his mission, maybe I'll be able to go home on time.' A small smile crept onto the old man's lips.

A few minutes passed before there was a knock on the door. The Hokage sat up straight and heaved a sigh.

"Come in."

The door opened to make way for a tall figure of a man. His silver hair sticking up and to the left, he was wearing the standard Shinobi uniform of blue long sleeve shirt and pants, black Shinobi sandals, and the green Jounin vest. His mouth was strangly covered by a blue cloth while his ninja headband was on his forhead but pulled down to cover his left eye.

"Ah, Kakashi I wasn't expecting you for a couple more hours. Why are you so early?" The old man questioned.

"Mah, well I ran into a slight problem, but we can get to that later." Kakashi put both hands into his pockets. "Anyway upon my infiltration on Orochimaru's base, I encountered no traps or guards. No one was there, so I got in pretty easily and as I was making my way through the base nothing popped out to get me, no one came to stop me. Nothing. There were no people, no objects, no beds, no rats, no poisons, and no experiments'. The whole place was empty Sir, so it took no time at all to inspect the place."

The Hokage nodded his head with a thoughtful look on his face. "Well, then it makes sense now why you are so early. Ah, you did say that you ran into a problem?" A brow was raised to enforce the question.

"Hai, so after I inspected the whole base, I summoned Pakun and his group to help scout out any scents, just in case I missed something. We went through the entire base again. Nothing was found until we got to the deepest level, the basement well more like a dungeon actually. It was faint but the hounds had found a scent. Only one scent, that belonged to a girl believed to be dead. When we got to the village I took her to the hospital immediately."

The Hokage was speech less, a girl was found by herself in a place that was completely empty? "And who do you believe this girl is Kakashi?"

"Sir, you might not believe me but you should come with me to the hospital and bring the file containing the real information concerning the Jinjuriki."

The surrounding area was completely empty, there was no sky, or ground, or water. Just a vast emptiness.

*sniff sniff*

"Shh, calm yourself little one there is nothing to be afraid of."

"B-But someone was just here, and now he's gone, our only chance to leave this place is gone."

"Nonsence, there will be more than one chance to leave this place. You must be patient."

*sniff*

"I-I'll try, I don't want to be here forever."

"It will be alright, I'll will always be here for you. You will never be alone."

"Thank you Amber. You're the only friend I have."

"And when you leave this place, you will have even more friends little one."

The third Hokage was baffled beyond belief, no matter how many times he looked at the information in front of him he could not believe it.

"Kakashi, how was I not informed of this information? This girl was supposed to be the Jinjuriki instead of Naruto? Why didn't the forth tell me this."

"He didn't really tell anyone Sir, he was trying to keep it low key, so nothing bad would happen. But somehow information leaked out and the girl was kidnapped before even making it to the boarder."

The old man turned to the bed where a girl of 7 years was lying in. She was a thin thing probably from lack of proper nutrients. She was pale skinned and had bright red hair that reminded the Hokage of a young woman who passed away 5 years ago. She was currently wearing a breathing mask to help the oxygen flow going.

"Well if this girl is really Kohaku, then we should find out soon when the blood tests come back. We should let her rest some more. Come Kakashi, we have a lot to do today."

*sniff sniff*

"Little one, the signature is back…"

"I-it is?"

"Yes, can you feel it? Try to feel it like I showed you."

…

"I-I can! He's coming back! But I feel something else too, but it feels smaller."

"Yes your right, they feel like…dogs. They probably caught your scent little one."

"They're coming closer!"

"They finally found you; you finally get to leave this place."

"Hokage-sama the blood test are in, here are the results."

"Ah, thank you Doctor." As the Doctor turned to leave the Hokage returned to his office and sank into his chair. "Well Kakashi let's see if she is indeed Kohaku Haruno."

Kakashi gave and nod as the old man quietly read the contents of the paper.

*tick-tock tick-tock*

A forced sigh finally broke through the quiet atmosphere. "Well Kakashi, you were right, that girl is the daughter of Iyoku Haruno and Sango Uzumaki."

"Now what do we do Sir."

"Now we get Aki Haruno in here and tell her that her niece is alive and well. And we update Kohaku's citizenship papers and put them in the system."

Aki Haruno was a strong willed and independent woman. She took pride in herself and didn't get pushed around from others and if you so much as snubbed her she would turn up her nose and ignore it. So when the Hokage's Anbu came to her door ordering her to go to the Hokage's office with no explanation, she went with confidence knowing she didn't do anything wrong.

When Aki had entered the office, the old man just gazed at her and took in her appearance. The Harunos blond hair was just to her shoulders and her blue eyes were set in a determined glare, but he could still see a bit of sadness in her gaze. As Aki took a seat she crossed her arms across her chest and looked to the leader of the village.

"Good Evening Mrs. Haruno, how was your evening?" the kind man asked.

"Well, it was going just fine, until a certain Anbu demanded I come here with no explanation at all."

"Ah, I am sorry about that, I actually didn't tell him why I called you here. My apologies."

That statement caused a slightly shocked look to cross Aki's face, but only slightly.

"Anyway, I called you here, because early this morning I sent one of my Jonin's to scout an empty and abandoned base of Orochimaru's. Nothing of interest was found until one of his nin-dogs caught a scent of a little girl in the base. She was brought back her and treated. We even identified her." With that last statement the Hokage reached for a few papers that were on his desk and sat them on the edge facing the blond. She, whoever, didn't make a move for it, but with her arms still crossed she leaned forward with an indifferent look on her face and glanced at the top paper.

The Hokage wasn't sure when it happened but when he focused he glance back to the woman, tears were running down her face. Slowly she uncrossed her arms and with shaky fingers grasped the papers and brought them closer to her.

"W-What is this? Is this some kind of joke! Why are you showing this to me!?" the woman cried out. In her hands was a slip of paper with a photo attached, and staring back at her were the same blue/green eyes that had haunted her for the past 5 years. Those same eyes and that same red hair; the same child. The little girl that she was supposed to take care of when she had come to the village, her 2 year old niece Kohaku Haruno.

"Why are you showing me this?" It was a low whisper, but the Hokage was able to hear it all the same. He didn't make a sound, so when Aki looked up at him all he did was spin his finger in the air.

"There is another page."

Aki looked back to the page in her hand and slowly turned to the second on. A small gasp escaped her lips and she gazed at the new photo. The figure was older and wasn't looking at her, but she could still tell that it was Kohaku, her hair was a giveaway, no matter how much longer it was than the other photo.

"This…this is Kohaku? But it's not possible! She's dead, isn't she!?" Aki asked with disbelief.

"I know it must be a lot for you to take in, but your niece is alive and well." The Hokage stated softly with a smile.

Aki Haruno, the strong willed and independent woman, cried and cried in relief.