You know the old saying: Assumption- makes an ass out of u and me.
Let's take that to the extreme shall we?
Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha or Naruto
"Damn it Kabuto! Bring him back!" Orochimaru howled at the medic nin as Sasuke Uchiha fled the Sound.
He had been using experimental drugs on the boy when the boy had an adverse reaction, going berserk and fled.
"Hai, Orochimaru-sama." Kabuto nodded as he made to head in the direction the Uchiha had fled.
!~!
Sasuke was currently not in his right state of mind in the least, his limbs were on fire and only one thought possessed him: run.
His eyes rolled back into his head as everything went dark.
!~!
Every muscle of her body was sore beyond belief as she wearily made her way towards the Bone-eaters Well. The Inu-Taichi had gotten into a very serious scrape with a lizard youkai and Kagome needed to go home to gather the much needed supplies.
Letting herself relax a bit Kagome hoisted herself over the well's rim, so ready to go home and sleep.
Too bad nothing ever goes the way Kagome Higurashi plans…
'! I can't breathe! Water!' were the first coherent thoughts that graced Kagome Higurashi's mind when she emerged from the well's magic. Indeed, the Bone-Eater's well was flooded full of ice-cold water.
Realizing that her yellow backpack was weighing her down Kagome slipped out of it before heading for the surface.
After gulping a few large mouthfuls of the precious air Kagome realized that she was not in a well of any sort. No, this seemed to be a small pond or something similar!
Dragging herself onto the muddy bank Kagome did her best to ignore the disgusting, slimy feel of the deluged soil beneath her bruised and cut up legs.
Shivering from the forest air that seemed 10 degrees colder due to her soaked state Kagome glanced around at her new surroundings. She couldn't make head or tails of this place, as there was nothing like this pond in InuYasha's forest…
Giving the forest another glance, Kagome spotted something she had missed the first time around: a pile of white cloth.
Grudgingly getting to her feet Kagome slowly walked over to the suspicious pile.
A small breeze prompted the miko to pick up the white haori.
Scanning her surroundings for any potential threats with her miko abilities the girl swiftly stripped out of her soaking shirt before slipping on the haori that was several sizes too large for her.
No sooner had she placed on the long white haori did Kagome spot the slightest bit of movement below her.
A little boy, no older than two or three years old, lay tangled in the oversized masses of dark fabric.
Kagome immediately searched the forest with her eyes looking for whomever the child belonged to. She saw nothing.
The child must have been sick she realized as she took in the child's waxy appearance. Shallow, raspy breaths could be heard as the boy weakly struggled to breathe.
"Oh, you poor thing." She muttered at the injustice of it all. It wasn't uncommon for diseased infants to be abandoned by superstitious parents who were ignorant of how disease was spread.
If only her bag was not currently situated at the bottom of the small pond behind her, otherwise Kagome would have tried to help the dieing boy. All she could do was offer some small comfort in what seemed to be the last few minutes of the infant's short life.
Wide curious coal-colored eyes stared at Kagome before asking in a weak voice, "Okaa-san?"
Kagome's heartstrings were pulled by the faint hope that laced the boy's voice.
"You come back?" Kagome felt like the muddy sludge that covered her legs. He thought that she was his mother, probably the very person who had abandoned him to die. That she had come back for him.
Making her choice Kagome smiled at the boy, nodding as she reached to run her fingers through the boy's hair. She was determined to make the child feel loved before he passed on to the next world, even if it was a lie.
~!~
The medic nin could scarcely believe his eyes as he spotted his target by a small trickling brook. He had followed Orochimaru's unique chakra signature that was imbued in the cured seal. The young man's entire appearance seemed to have been altered the sadistic medic concluded as he looked at the now 'female Sasuke'.
"There you are, Sasuke-kun… Or should I say 'Chan'?"
The medic watched as 'Sasuke' gave a startled flinch as 'she' clutched her oversized pants and waist wrap to her chest.
~ Kag POV~
Kagome's heart nearly leapt out of her chest in shock when she heard a voice call out.
Instinctively she held the tiny boy she had swaddled into the clothing to her chest defensively.
Glancing up into the tree line she spotted a white/silver haired man standing on a branch. Who was he? She didn't like the way his gaze was travelling around her body.
~Kabuto POV~
Kabuto internally frowned when the Uchiha merely stared at him like a deer caught in the path of a fire jutsu.
The drug seemed to have had a severe effect on the Uchiha's mind
"Don't be like that, Sasuke-kun. Orochimaru-sama is concerned about you…" Kabuto tsked as though he was scolding a small child.
"I-I'm sorry, you've got the wrong person." The female Sasuke backed up a few steps trying to keep out of his reach.
"No, please! Stay away from me!" 'Sasuke' pleaded.
Kabuto couldn't keep the deranged chuckle from his lips, he liked this behavior coming from the Uchiha! So much better than the arrogant prick!
Kabuto let out a hiss of pain when 'Sasuke' held out an arm as though to stop him. He had run into something!
Narrowing his eyes in contempt at the Uchiha, Kabuto "Very well, Sasuke-chan… I'll go for now. Lord Orchimaru will send out others to come collect you."
Now feeling far more disturbed Kagome figured it was best that she keep on moving, lest that freak come back! Slightly trembling from the exertion of using so much of her powers (especially since she hadn't eaten or rested since before the run in with the lizard youkai yesterday). She was happy that her powers had repelled the man, she hadn't been sure if they would work since he was a human.
A few hours later Kagome and the strange child had been able to catch a ride with an elderly farmer and his wife. They had told her that they were on their way to a city called 'Konohagakure' to sell their crops. Of course the name meant nothing to the stranded Miko so she had rephrased her question to, "Is there a Doctor or a Hospital there?"
"Aye, but we be a good two 'er so day's ride, young lady. Yer boy gonna be able to hold out that long?" The farmer's wife admitted to Kagome as she looked at the ill toddler.
!~#! The next day
Kagome sat patiently in the back with the crops while she bounced the boy on her knee a bit, trying to keep him from crying.
The boy made fussing noises as he rubbed at his eyes with his little fists. "Hey, don't do that. Rubbing them just makes it worse, sweetie." She pulled the boy's arms away much to his protest.
She nearly screamed when she looked at his eyes. They were red, not just from rubbing at them but his iris was blood red. Was this part of the child's illness? Were his eyes bleeding internally? Would he go blind?
"Is there anyway we can go faster? He seems to be getting worse!" Kagome stated as she turned towards the farmer and his wife.
The elderly farmer gave a small nod before making a clicking sound under his tongue urging the old mare to move with haste.
!~!~
Neji Hyuuga scowled as Lee had decided to give some poor traveler a personal youth-filled tour of the entire village.
Neji watched with bored eyes as an old cart pulled by an equally old horse trotted up to the gates entrance. There were three people on the cart that the Hyuuga could see; it was obvious that these were merely civilians so there was no need to waste his Byakuugan.
The old man pointed in his direction, apparently directing the woman in the back of the wagon towards him.
The woman on the wagon gave a swift nod before getting off of the wagon in all haste.
"Please!" The frantic young woman ran towards him with a bundle clutched to her chest as she pleaded, "I was told there was a hospital here! I need a doctor, he's very ill!"
Glancing at the bundle in the young woman's arms, Neji realized it was a baby. A very sick one at that if the woman's panic was to be believed.
Damn, where was Lee when you needed him?
"Hang on, we're almost there." He informed the young 'mother' as he leapt from rooftop to rooftop with the woman in his arms.
The stoic Hyuuga's blood ran cold when he glanced at the ill child who had become uncovered a bit during his last leap.
Blood-red eyes with black commas stared up at him from the swaddling. The Sharingan. This woman had a child with Uchiha blood! Scowling, the Hyuuga knew this needed to be reported ASAP.
No sooner had he placed the woman down, Neji was no his way to inform the Hokage.
~!~
Turning to thank the young man who had brought her Kagome was surprised to find no one there. Where had he gone?
Shaking her head Kagome hurried into the hospital determined to seek treatment for the child.
Kagome sighed in relief as the ill little boy was taken from her, too caught up in her relief to realize that people were staring at her filthy mismatched clothes.
"Excuse me, Ma'am. You need to come with me." An authoritative voice told her as a hand grasped onto her shoulder. A strange woman wearing some sort of militaristic uniform and an animal mask stood next to the miko.
"Huh? What?" Had she done something wrong? She couldn't imagine for the life of her what she had done…
Reluctantly she allowed the strange animal masked woman lead her away. The last thing Kagome remembered was a sharp pain at the base of her neck as she blacked out.
!~!~
When Kagome woke up she found herself strapped to a metal chair with thick leather restraints.
She could only watch apprehensively as tall man wearing a black bandana on his head approached with a syringe filled with some unknown liquid.
A strange, but not entirely unpleasant tingle spread through her left arm as the needle's plunger went down.
She felt the sensation spread slowly through her body like a cold wave. Kagome felt her anxiety slowly disappear and was replaced by a strange feeling of detached calmness.
She felt like smiling. Acting on the impromptu impulse the girl smiled as widely as she could. Not finding it within herself to realize that she must look like a fool.
"You're gonna tell me everything I want to know, got it?" The man snarled out in a deep voice that distantly reminded Kagome of that American movie she had once seen. What was it called again? Ah! Batman! She felt pleased at remembering the movie's name.
Kagome dazedly nodded her head, sure she'd tell them what they wanted to know. Provided that she didn't fall asleep or vomit…
The heavily scarred man glared at her, speaking in his rough voice, "What is your name?"
"Higurashi, Kagome." For some reason she thought the way the light reflected from his strange metal-plated bandana was simply fascinating…
"How old are you?"
Kagome gave her automatic response, "19."
"What is your son's name?"
Her son? Oh they must have been referring to Shippo-chan, how strange that these people knew about him.
The black haired child she had found never once crossed Kagome's drugged mind.
"Shippo…" she said in a slightly slurred voice.
"Who is his father?"
Shippo's father? The fox-pelt that the thunder-brother Manten had worn? She didn't know his name, she had never asked Shippo about his father.
"I … Don't know…" Kagome admitted to the man.
"Is his name Uchiha Itachi?" The man asked again, though much more pointedly this time.
Kagome could only shrug, "I don't know…"
The man gave her a hard, dubious glare before asking, "Did he pay you to have the boy?"
Had she been paid to keep Shippo with her? How dare these people assume that a human woman like herself could only care for a demon child if she had been paid a generous fee!
Righteous anger filled her eyes at what she thought she had been asked, "How dare you even ask me that! Just what kind of person do you take me for Mr. Interrogator? I love Shippo! I would never allow myself to be paid to take care of him!"
The man seemed slightly taken aback by the sudden outburst, "… I see… What aptitudes does your son possess?"
Kagome frowned, aptitudes? Did these people think that Shippo had ever taken any standardized tests from 500 years in the future?
The man must have seen the confusion she felt as he gruffly re-worded the question, "Skills Miss Higurashi, what skills does the boy possess? Ninjutsu?"
"Well, let's see… Oh! He loves to draw! He has a vivid imagination and loves to tell people stories that he's made up." Looking up she saw that the man was becoming increasingly agitated.
She didn't see why though, she was telling him everything she knew! Maybe he was looking for something else. Kagome recalled the word he had used at the end of the sentence, ninjutsu. Wasn't that ninja magic or something like that?
"Why in the world do you think he would know ninja magic? He's too small and young to know anything major like that." Kagome asked, now feeling even more confused than before.
Apparently not the right answer, again. "What can he do?"
"Like tricks? Well… he can do a few illusions. But he can't hold them for very long." She supplied as her mind feed her pictures of the little kit playing with the toy top that he sometimes defended himself with, and the imperfect transformations he used.
That answer seemed to please the man she realized as his agitation went down slightly, "Did you teach him?"
"Oh gosh, no. I can't do them, let alone teach him." Kagome stated with a small laugh, unable to imagine how terribly silly she would look if she had tried to teach the young demon despite being completely unable to perform what she taught.
Her interrogator looked like he was about to ask another question when the door to the room opened slightly.
She watched with her dazed blue eyes as the man went out into the hallway, presumably to speak with someone.
She didn't really mind waiting, she just wished that she was not so securely strapped to the metal chair, she wanted to move her arms.
The scared man came into her peripheral vision once more.
"Has your son inherited the Sharingan Kekkai Genkai?"
"…Wha?" Kagome couldn't even comprehend what the man had just asked her.
The man growled at her and she got the vaguest feeling that he wanted to hit her, "His eyes woman! What about his eyes! Did he inherit his father's eyes?"
Kagome strained to recall if she had ever learnt the dead fox demon's eye color. Why was this so important to these people?
Well she certainly knew nothing about Shippo's mother so she couldn't say for certain but it was highly probable that he had inherited his father's eye color.
"I don't know. I guess he did…. How am I supposed to know?" She knew innately that she should be afraid of his rigid stance but she just couldn't bring herself to in her drugged state.
"Have his eyes ever turned red?" Ibiki was beginning to think that Itachi had chosen this woman because she was so ignorant. She would never had known how valuable her child was and was so average she would be easily overlooked by ninja.
Red? Shippo was a fox demon of course his eyes could turn red. Nearly all demon's eyes turned red in rage. Man these people knew nothing about demons!
However she had only seen Shippo that angry once.
"Well… They've only turned red once or twice…" Kagome drifted off.
Had she been in her normal state of mind Kagome would have immediately picked up that something wasn't quite right when she answered the last question.
That information caught the attention of all the occupants hidden behind the one-way-mirror in the room. Itachi's child was a prodigy like his father!
/~!
Ino was startled at the toddler's appearance, he looked like a miniature Sasuke! The blonde shook her head at the thought; Itachi and Sasuke were brothers so it was obvious that there would be a similarity!
Ino put on a cheerful face as she entered the room, "Hi there Shippo-chan! My name is Ino-san and I thought you might want some fun stuff to play with!"
Sasuke wasn't sure how to respond to the cheerful blonde woman. His name wasn't Shippo!
The little boy looked longingly at the tiny basket of 'fun stuff', he wanted to play with some toys.
The lady would take it away if he told her she was in the wrong room, the gift was for a 'Shippo-chan' and not him.
Maybe… maybe he could say he was Shippo. He could always say he was sorry for lying later.
Ino wheeled the tray/table that was designed to hang over a bedbound patient's lap next to the hospital bed, in front of the little boy.
"Would you like to draw? Your Okaa-san told me you're pretty good at it! And look here! I've got lots of cool colors for you to use!" Ino displayed the wide array of crayons trying to tempt the little boy.
It worked. The child held out his hands to take the offered crayons and paper.
"So what's your favorite color?"
The boy hesitantly looked up at her before replying, "… Blue."
"Oh, that's a good color! Mine's purple!"
The little boy was fixated on his drawing, this was good, he was starting to open up.
"So how old are you?" 'Shippo' held up three fingers.
"Three? Wow you're a big boy!"
Ino waited a few minutes before launching her next question, "What's your Otou-san like Shippo-chan?"
The little boy made a shrug before looking down at his drawing once again. Otou-san was simply Otou-san. He didn't know how to describe the sullen and awkward man in words.
"Well what about your Okaa-san?" Ino prompted the child.
It was as though the boy had just now realized that he had been separated from the woman as he looked quickly around the room his little eyes searching. Ino could only watch as the little Uchiha started to wail for his mother.
Two floor nurses came to investigate the cry. They had been keeping a sharp ear and eye on the nameless little boy, it was obvious that the child was not in perfect health. However the Konoha Hospital's regulations forbade them from treating the child without a parent or legal guardian's signed consent. And according to the scanty patient chart this child had a mother who was currently detained by the Konohagakure shinobi force.
?/!
Kagome was currently being pushed down some long hall that had many twists and turns. Or at least it felt like it.
She was blindfolded so she could only judge by the motions the wheelchair was pushed with.
Unprepared for the sudden light when the blindfold was removed, she made a sound of pain before covering her eyes.
Her thoughts had become less sluggish and she was starting to become more aware of her surroundings.
Looking around she saw what looked like a hospital lobby. What? Why was she here?
She was not about to be placed further under this strange towns control by being placed in a hospital!
"Hey!" She placed a bare foot on the floor, halting the wheel chair. "You can't do this! You people have no right to keep me here! I am not a citizen so you have no legal authority over me."
A rough hand pushed her back down when she made to stand up.
"Please stay seated ma'am, you need to be checked into the hospital before you can see your son." The white clothed medic explained to the obviously distraught woman. Poor thing…
~!~
Hokage's Office
They had judged that the woman was very little threat, or at least in her current sedated state. The interrogation had ended when the young woman began vomiting, it seemed that she had an adverse reaction to the drug.
Tsunade looked sharply up from some paperwork at her interrogation squad, "Well? What did you find out?"
"Oh, Hokage-sama! The little boy is the cutest little thing ever!" "Ahem!"
"S-Sorry Ibiki-san…" Ino blushed at her unprofessional behavior. But it was true!
"She claims not to know Uchiha Itachi, or at least not personally. It's possible that she was placed under genjutsu or he went to her under an illusion." Ibiki reported to his leader in a clear voice.
"Why would Uchiha Itachi choose a woman like her to bear his child? From what this report says she's a civilian, not from any known ninja clan, shows no understanding of shinobi arts, and is well, everything a strong shinobi doesn't look for in a woman…" Tsunade mused as she looked over the initial report that had made her feel justified in placing a warrant for the woman to undergo interrogation.
Anko snorted, "Maybe she's good in bed, that's something any man looks for."
"An S-rank missing nin doesn't make and leave mistakes like this. Especially not Uchiha, Itachi. No, she had to be selected by him for some reason, but what?" The woman frowned unsure of how to best proceed.
"I want to see the medical examination files as soon as possible. For now knowledge of the potential heir of Itachi Uchiha is classified information. I want the woman to be kept under mild sedatives until further notice."
… Oh, boy. How in the world is she gonna get herself out of this one? Especially since she's unintentionally gotten herself caught up in not one, but two very wrong assumptions…
Please review and give me some more (wrong but seemingly plausible) assumptions she could get caught up in!