A/N: Hey guys, so I decided to take a break from one-shots and give a crack at a little series. This will be a sort of alternate universe since the story line will be followed extremely vaguely. I'm not entirely sure if I want to continue this series or not. So tell me what you think! Any criticism and ideas will be greatly appreciated.
Loving your own family is born into you as you become part of your parents. Loving someone else generally ends up being a mystery. Most people never know who they'll fall in love with or who won't last. Most people never even find "the one". The Shiryoku clan just so happens not to be most people.
A young married couple consisting of a woman and man smiled at each other while the woman sat in a hospital bed. The woman is holding a tiny pink bundle in her arms, strangely this tiny pink bundle already had a little red string around her tiny new born finger even though the baby herself won't be able to see it until much later. This was uncommon since the red string only showed up when the baby was older and could form conscious thoughts. The new mother sighed at the thought of this precious baby belonging to someone else other than her mother and father.
"She already belongs to another, my dear Toshio, what should we do?" The mother asked her husband.
"Let her follow her destiny, but let her know that we will always love her." The man replied with sadness in his voice.
"What is the young one's name, lady Hareta?" Hareta Shiryoku's mid-wife, an old lady named Emiko, asked her. Hareta thought of a name while staring at her only little girl, but all she could think of was how early that string appeared. At last she smiled and replied "Unmei".
"Our little girl is destined for greatness." The father said to his wife. He smiled and hugged her carefully, trying to avoid hurting her and his daughter.
"Indeed she is. That is a fitting name for an heiress. It is a little ironic though since it means destiny." Emiko said in a light and humoristic tone. She was also part of the Shiryoku clan, but since she was married into it, she did not possess the Kekkei Genkai. Hareta and Toshio were both born into the clan and they are very distant family, but since they were the only ones fated with each other and in the same clan, they were made the head of the clan.
"Well of course, we need something to tease her about." Toshio laughed.
Emiko took Unmei from Hareta so that she could rest. Hareta looked over at Toshio in worry. Neither of them wanted to lose their daughter to someone else when they've only known her for a few minutes. The elders would request for her to go and find when her partner and return when she comes of age.
"She'll be ready for anything. Any kunoichi from Kirigakure would be." Toshio said bitterly. They didn't plan on staying in Kirigakure forever since the Shiryoku clan was famous for travelling in search of their partners. Most of the clan's members have already scattered around the nations and opted for a routine meeting in one of the nations. Each nation has two clan leaders from the Shiryoku clan. The Shiryoku clan aren't loyal to anyone but their partners and the nations have come to understand that by now. It wasn't an issue since the clan leaders remained neutral and the members could become a shinobi to any village they wished. Toshio and Hareta planned on moving to a different village in the water nation after the birth of Unmei since they feared for their child in such a vicious place.
"Can we even move with her thread this bright?" Hareta asked Toshio. Toshio stared at the wall in front of them in deep thought.
Toshio, the quick thinker that he is, came to a conclusion. "We'll have to wait and see who the lucky person is; maybe we can take the person with us." He said.
Hareta smiled at Toshio with her eyes half closed. She seemed to be getting more tired by the second. Toshio smiled back and held Hareta before kissing her forehead.
"Rest well." Toshio whispered to Hareta.
"Y-you too." Hareta answered, nearly asleep.
Toshio laughed quietly before leaving his wife's hospital room.
As Toshio walked down the hall in thought, he bumped into a little toddler. The toddler growled at Toshio with tiny teardrops etched on the corners of his eyes. The toddler seemed to be seconds away from letting those tears drop. Toshio immediately bent down to see if the kid was alright. He noticed that the kid couldn't be more than two years old. This child also had the string brightly etched on his tiny finger. Toshio vaguely wondered why this generation of kids were destined with partners so quickly. In his day love rarely happened without a lot of travelling. His wife used to be in the Fire country before he found her.
"Are you alright?" Toshio asked, slightly panicked at hurting a kid. He didn't want the boy to start crying. The boy glared at him with his pearly white eyes before he started to cry. Toshio looked around the hospital for someone to help him take care of the kid since he didn't know how to get the child to stop crying. This brought up his anxieties about his newborn as he started to look stressed.
Toshio did the only thing he knew to do; he picked up the kid in his arms and hugged him softly.
"There there, little one, I'm sorry if I hurt you. I didn't see you there." Toshio smiled at the little boy.
The boy silently stared at Toshio before he started to giggle. Immediate relieve washed over Toshio like a waterfall. He ruffled the boy's blue tuff of hair before setting him back down on the ground.
"Where are your parents, little boy?" Toshio asked the younger boy, vaguely wondering at which age children start speaking.
The boy stared at Toshio with doe eyes. Toshio decided to rephrase his question.
"Mommy and Daddy?" He awkwardly said, having no idea about asking questions to toddlers.
The boy's eyes brightened with recognition before saying "Mommy and Daddy!".
Toshio smiled again and asked "Where?".
The boy looked past him and pointed to a hall not far away from him. Toshio decided that he'd let his wife rest and show the boy to his parents.
As they neared the room the boy was pointing to, a nurse ran past them and tripped on her own feet. Toshio stopped to help the nurse up, but before he could do so, the nurse looked over at the boy next to Toshio.
"KISAME!" The nurse yelled at the boy. She stood up and took the boy from Toshio.
"Sorry sir, it seems that little Kisame here is a wanderer." The nurse smiled sheepishly at Toshio.
"That's alright. Where are his parents?" Toshio smiled in a friendly manner before his look turned into one of questioning when the nurse suddenly looked very sad.
"Both of his parents came into the hospital earlier this morning. They suffered from severe injuries because of a mission. His mother passed away an hour ago and his father passed away two hours ago." The nurse explained to Toshio in a manner that would shatter even the coldest heart.
Toshio looked at the boy with sadness before mustering up some courage to smile.
"Where was he staying when all of this happened? Did he have any family with him?" Toshio asked, concerned for the little boy.
"He has no known family, sir. Their neighbours were taking care of him while they were on the mission; they brought him in when they came to the hospital. He is going to have to go to the orphanage. I wish I could have taken him in for a few days, but I wouldn't have the time to care for him with my job." The nurse was brought close to tears. She seemed to be new at the hospital.
Toshio looked at her and thought for a moment. "My wife and I have to stay at our home for a while since my wife gave birth today and we need to care for our daughter. I'm sure that the people in our compound would help us to take care of the boy for a few days, if that is alright?" Toshio finally answered. He knew that if Hareta heard about the boy, she would not mind him there.
The nurse gave a cry of excitement and her eyes lit up. The woman must have a weakness for little kids, since she was so worried about this one. "That would be no problem at all sir! I will just go and ask the social worker for the paperwork." The nurse held the boy and ran off before returning with an embarrassed red tint on her face. "I'm sorry, what is your name and in which room is your wife?" The nurse asked politely.
"I am Toshio Shiryoku, my wife currently resides in room 1014. I will be waiting there for you." Toshio smiled at the nurse before rushing off to Hareta.
When Toshio entered the room, Hareta was already sitting up straight and yawning. She must have just woken up. Toshio quickly walked over to her. He started to panic so he took a deep breath and said what he needed to.
"Now Hareta, I know this is hard to ask right now, but can we foster a little two year old boy for a few weeks? I bumped into him earlier and he lost his parents today and he has no family and he just looked so sad and the nurse that wanted to take him couldn't and I didn't want her to be disappointed so I told her that it was fine and the nurse is on her way with the paperwork and I'm sorry. You know I love you?"
Hareta knows that Toshio jumbled his words when he's nervous so she could tell that this was something that he really wanted.
"So I have two kids now?" A half asleep Hareta asked Toshio.
Toshio grinned sheepishly before rubbing the back of his head. He knew that he was manipulating his postpartum wife into technically adopting the kid since she would get too attached to let him go after a few weeks.
"Well, yeah." Toshio answered.
Hareta gave a cold look to Toshio before saying "It's because I didn't birth a son, isn't it?"
Toshio laughed before hugging Hareta and saying "You know I already love Unmei, I wouldn't trade her. If you see the little boy then you'll understand. Oh, the boy already has a red string as well."
"I know." Hareta smiled. "You said that he's around two, that's just about the age where the red string usually comes in." Hareta stated.
Emiko walked into the room with little Unmei and placed her in Hareta's arms. Hareta cuddled her baby in her arms before the door opened to reveal the nurse and the boy.
Hareta's heart stopped for a moment. She looked at the boy in shock. It was very unusual for a boy to look like a shark and to be blue, but that isn't what was bothering her.
It was the red string connecting him to her daughter.