The Pack…

Chapter One.

The summer heat was still stifling in the middle of the night, half the town was restless under the moisture in the air and the bright full moon. While the other half found comfort in any way possible to cool down, most went up to the roof tops of buildings to have a chance of a cool breeze to help them sleep through till morning.

This meant that some individuals spotted the elusive anbu members coming in from missions or those lurking about to keep an eye out for trouble.

One noted member of the infamous Anbu squads spotted was Sakura Haruno, returning from a rumoured massacre in the west. Her long pink hair and tall stature practically gave her identity away the moment she came back into town, the hokages old apprentice had scarlessly been seen for a number of years due to classified details the Elders had certain rulings on working shinobi woman.

Shinobi woman, were now treated like prized livestock. But not the spoilt way most civilians imagined they would be, quite the opposite was rumoured. The war that ended a few years ago killed off thousands of woman and children, Konoha struggled to get resources in to help those who remained. If injury or illness didn't kill off the remaining civilians, an occurrence of smallpox certainly tried to… leaving a fair chunk of Konoha's civilians and Shinobi sterile.

So it was rumoured that a select few chosen shinobi were to be used as breeding stock to boost the numbers back up so that in future generations Konoha would have a steady supply of deadly shinobi.

Most civilians didn't believe this to be true, that their elders wouldn't resort to such dire emergency procedures. Sakura's parents were apart of these nonbelievers, too traditional and set in their ways to change their minds. At Eighteen, when Sakura came home after months of being in sand country for supposed medical research with a baby girl on her hip. Her parents couldn't take that it was all confidential, that their daughter brought shame on the family to have a child outside of marriage. So even when Sakura begged and pleaded with them, telling them that she didn't have a choice they turned their backs on their only child and now new grandchild.

As Sakura made her way through town towards the Hokage building, she remembered that moment where her parents left her in her moment of need. Even after eight years now, she can remember how it felt when her heart broke to return the next day to any empty house.

Now that empty house was where she wondered if her daughter was home, safe and fast asleep.

She frightened Shizune, who had fallen asleep at her desk for the thousandth time.

"Sorry Sakura, there's been a lot of paperwork to do" She yawned, giving her the thumbs up that it was safe enough to enter the office of doom.

Sakura walked in drawing a deep breath not knowing what Tsunade might do to her this time, when she learns that although successful, the mission cost her a partner. An idiot with a low intellect, who may have gotten into anbu by mistake.

Tsunade turned around to face Sakura, who was no less three days overdue and looked like she was on brink of collapse.

Sakura respectfully bowed her head "Hokage, I would like to report agent mushroom perished during a complication of the mission"

"I know, the contractor contacted me detailing the mission and paying the extra fee that comes with the serious misjudgement of his" Tsunade sighed, for three days she had honestly hoped Sakura would find a way to extend her time away. Not that she didn't love Sakura, she was as close to a daughter she had and that little brat of hers always kept Tsunade on her toes. But a week ago, she was given a scroll straight from the elders to give to Sakura. This scroll was handed to Sakura years ago, detailing her partner and around nine months later her daughter was born.

Tsunade held out two scrolls, one detailing Sakura's new team and the other was detailing that she will be forced to conceived a child within the next year or face being hanged in the public square for treason.

There was no reaction when Sakura first saw that scroll, she just went cold and her breathing shallowed. How could this be right? How could they be so cruel to her, no one else she knew had been asked for another child. Sakura opened the scroll to see the name and for some reason she wasn't surprised, their first child together was the pride of the elders… just pity Sakura had not seen Kakashi since Akahana was 4 when she slammed the door in his face.

"You will meet your new team tomorrow, Ive made arrangements for a later meeting time. Akahana has specifically requested that you two spend the morning together, it is her eighth birthday after all" Tsunade ushered her out the door, not really wanting to honestly deal with the mess that was to come in the next week. She needed another stiff drink….

The sun was just beginning to rise when Sakura made it to her bed after a long hot shower and finally a chance to wash her hair. As she closed her eyes, she felt the weight of the bed change and smiled Akahana had come to join her for a morning snooze.

"I've missed you mum" She gently whispered into Sakura's ears as her little arms wrapped around Sakura's body.

Sakura inhaled deeply, this was what coming home was all about. Akahana was everything to her, it was just them two against the world and Sakura wouldn't have it any other way.

"You missed parents' night at the academy" Akahana whimpered.

"What could they tell me? I know everything there is to know about you Hana" The pair of them smiled, the other snobbish parents and children be damned for judging her.

Sakura gently put a necklace around Hana's neck, this was a necklace that Kakashi had given her when he showed up looking for them when it was Akahana's fourth birthday. She had kept it for years, doting at its finery and detailing. Not a lot of necklaces with that sort of detailed Rose were found around in any old place. It seemed fitting to give it to Akahana, Kakashi was soon to reappear for their next conceivment and he might even be nice enough to finally meet his daughter in person.

But their cherished moment ended when Akahana's furry friends came to join the party in the bed. First was Tomi, one of Hana's summons to which there was no summoning contract he simply showed up one day declaring loyalty to Akahana and her family. Tomi, wasn't like Kakashi's dogs either he was a small white wolf with bright blue eyes. He was the smallest of the four…

Hana had quite the pack… There was Akira, one of the biggest wolves Sakura had seen and but not the sharpest tool in the shed either. Then there was Oki, the only female and the mother hen of the group and the only one Sakura dared let babysit Hana. Lastly on the bed was Jiro, the alpha of the pack and always a little bit mean to the point Sakura was always uneasy about him being in public. There had been a few incidents at the academy where Hanas' wolves appeared without warning and scared some children… but it wasn't Hana's fault. At the Academy, she had always been teased about how she looked to the point Akahana had often left school crying because of the mean taunts the other children gave her.

Every time her teacher Tenzou sent Sakura message about Akahana and her ability to run away, Sakura's heart dropped. To everyone else Akahana was a boisterous little girl with extraordinary girl, but with her silver hair… came mean taunts. Hana had often been called Grandma, old and others asked her how long till she retired.

"Mummy, I don't want to go back to the academy"

"You have two years left, I know the children are mean to you. But in two years, you won't have to see most of them again. Just keep your head up, you're still a talented shinobi in training-

"-I don't want to kill anyone"

At just eight years old, Sakura knew that Akahana wasn't meant for shinobi. The elders shoved her into the academy the moment she was able to walk, this was a little girl who didn't step on bugs out of fear of hurting them.

Sakura pulled Akahana in for a well-deserved hug again, she had all morning to spend with her daughter and the pack all before meeting a new team- who were probably all idiots.

Ok, so I am not a perfect writer. There's bound to plenty of grammatical mistakes.

But no haters, just let me write while I have the muse.