THE FOURTH'S FAMILY
INTRODUCTIO PART 1:
TRANSLATION
Naruto and all related characters belong to Masashi Kishimoto. If you owned something, why would you write a fan fiction about it?
The scroll was old and worn. In places ink was hardly legible; the only thing they could be thankful for was the fact that it was not completely destroyed. It was their task to decode it. The scroll held a secret that had been lost, they were sure of it. First though, they had to translate it. For it was written in the Demonic Tongue.
The Yondaime watched his two remaining students; Kakashi and Rin, as they followed the instructions issued them by the linguistics specialist, silently writing down notes. Occasionally one or the other would get up to go retrieve something from the supply cabinet. Rin was working on restoring the symbols on the paper that were worn with age, tracing their outline carefully before filling it in with ink. Her hands worked well at the task that took the precision of a medical ninja. Kakashi was busy writing down words as the man dictated them, one at a time, or sometimes even a full sentence.
For almost a month this had been their task, all three shinobi, no matter how they tried to deny it, were bored to the point of madness, the only thing that kept them going was the promise of finishing the task today, for they had finally reached the last part of the scroll.
At the beginning, Arashi had been banned from doing anything but supervising, owing to the fact that his hands were not as steady as Rin's and even a chicken had better handwriting than him. So, sitting in a corner, reading the newly published book by his former sensei, Arashi did what the linguist had assigned him to, watch.
The other man's name was Seiko Kane; he was formerly a shinobi who had instead of fighting with the sword as it was, decided to fight with the pen. It was he who had opened and solidified the relations between Konoha and other hidden villages after the Great Shinobi War. He even taught his own group of students poetry and literature; something Arashi felt was beginning to lose its value in this world run by shinobi.
No one spoke, but there was a sudden air of satisfaction in the room as Kakashi handed his writing pad to Kane, who took it, then admired the neat handwriting, legible and beautiful were the words he used to describe it. "At least sensei do not teach their charges handwriting. Girl, you may finish that last word, then we are done for today, tomorrow, we will finish."
The last part was said to Rin who almost smiled at the prospect of leaving the room she had been trapped in for hours. Then, with her work finished, she calmly put away the jar of ink she had been using away along with the pen. All three, Kakashi, Rin, and the Yondaime bowed respectfully to the man, then left calmly through the doorway, and found themselves in an empty corridor.
Once there, the Yondaime heaved a sigh of relief, "You two think it's boring to have to translate, try having to watch," he said with a smile, his good humor returning.
Rin hid a smile behind her hand as she tried not to smile, her eyes studied her sensei, "You wouldn't have to just watch if people could read your writing," she pointed out, once again trying not to laugh.
Silently Kakashi agreed with his teammate about their sensei's writing, though you could not tell by his stoic silence.
The Yondaime looked crestfallen, though both of them knew it was only an act, "So cruel…"Then, brightening up suddenly he said, "If neither of you have plans for dinner…Come over to my house, Akina is cooking tonight."
Rin groaned good naturedly and Kakashi rolled his eyes, every night sensei invited his teammates over for dinner, and every night they went through the same routine. Rin politely declined the offer before saying something about going home to see her family. Then, Kakashi would accept the offer and go with his sensei, grateful that he would not have to return to his dark and lonely house, that had been is inheritance from his father.
As Rin left, the Yondaime placed his hand on Kakashi's head, and the two began to walk toward his house, "So once again, it's just you and me?"
""Uh…yeah…" Kakashi said, trying to wriggle out from his sensei's hold. After all, he was fourteen, and no one needed to see that, he thought to himself as they reached the entrance of the street on which the Yondaime lived.
"The baby is due any day now," Arashi tried once again to engage Kakashi in conversation. The 'baby' was what he talked about every night, his wife was pregnant and at any moment would give birth, no one knew yet if it would be a boy or a girl. Yet, everyone knew that Arashi was secretly hoping for a beautiful little girl that he would be able to pamper.
At this point, they had reached the house where Uzumaki Akina stood just outside the door to greet her husband and Kakashi who she considered her unofficial son. She was always trying to get him to move into one of the spare rooms, always saying the big house felt empty with so much extra room. Akina had brown eyes that were always alight with a smile, and her hair was a dark brown color. She stood just a few inches shorter than her husband, and had a delicate look about her that reminded Kakashi of a flower. However, the silver haired boy knew better, Akina was a jounin after all. Due to her pregnancy, though, she had had to take a break.
Hugging his wife and giving her a peck on the cheek, Arashi then stepped into the house, Letting Akina hug Kakashi and give him a kiss on the forehead. Then, with her arm still around Kakashi's shoulders, she walked into the house, closing the door behind them.
Taking a deep breath, the Kyuubi roared, the noise echoing through the forest trees, scaring birds from their nests causing them to fly into the air, squawking in fright. Their wings flapping noisily as they tried in desperation to fly away from the Youma as its nine tails lashed around its massive body, knocking over trees as well as knocking large rocks from hillsides.
The scroll was to the west, the Kyuubi could sense it, the scroll of the Tamer, and it was in human possession. This was bad, very bad, if the humans discovered the Tamer, all would be lost. Crimson eyes scanned the forest, there was no time to warn the others now, and he could feel the scroll awakening.
With one last roar, the Kyuubi took off, headed toward the village of humans, the Hidden village Konoha.
The dinner was delicious as Kakashi sat back and relaxed slightly, engaged in a conversation with the Yondaime, they were arguing over the different methods of chakra usage, and so far, the Yondaime was winning by a land slide, he had proved his point already, but, having been caught up in the passion of his own words, gotten carried away by the sheer enthusiasm of discussing his point.
Suddenly, Akina dropped the pan she had been holding, crying out in pain and holding a hand to her stomach. This caused both Arashi and Kakashi to rush to her aid, carefully lying her down on the floor. "Kakashi, go get Rin, I will call the hospital," Arashi grabbed the phone off the hook as Kakashi rushed out the door and made a bee line to Rin's house.
The Kyuubi flew over the land he called his "territory", the trees and other scenery flashed by, too fast to see, blurred by the speed of the Youma. Red chakra surged from the Kyuubi's body, making it faster as it ran. Even for a Youma, a distance this great took time to cover. The only thing that guided it was the scent of something that it had not seen in over a millennium.
The village was getting closer, the Kyuubi slowed to a walk, there was time, and something did not seem right to him. Something felt…strange, as if…. As if… the Kyuubi struggled to find words to describe this feeling that seemed to haunt him. All he knew was that something was happening.
Seiko Kane was pleased with the progress they had made today on the scroll, he was secretly glad he had been persuaded to hire a team of shinobi to help rather than have his own clumsy students come and possibly mess everything up. So it was with a joyful spirit that the former shinobi copied the Hatake boy's notes down into a leather bound book for future reference.
Once he had finished that task, he went about the business of putting away the scroll, carefully so as not to disturb it, there was only one last section to decode and at this point only some sort of miracle was holding the scroll together. Quietly humming to himself, Kane placed a jutsu around the room as he closed and locked the door, leaving to go meet one of his old friends for dinner.
If Kane had only stayed a second longer he would have seen the writing on the scroll begin to glow, a light blue, the color of chakra. He would have been able to warn others of the coming disaster.
The Kyuubi stopped just outside the village gate, sniffing the air, something powerful was awakening, and he could feel it in his body. The chakra of whatever it was immense, why did not any of the stupid humans sense it. He watched silently as the stood in stoic silence, watching for enemies from the outside. Fools, the enemy is inside.
The Kyuubi kept his presence hidden from the humans, which considering his great power was extremely great was very difficult. He could tell they could vaguely sense him by the way they would occasionally glance over in his direction. He had warned them, but they had not listened; now it would kill them all.
Using a henge, the Kyuubi changed his appearance to that of a man and made his way to the village gate.
Both Kakashi and Arashi waited impatiently in the waiting room for any news of Akina and the baby. Four hours ago her water broke, since then, they had manage to get her to the hospital and were then place to wait in the waiting room where Arashi paced around tirelessly, sitting down only if told to do so by a medic passing by, and even then only for a moment.
They had both been led out of the room due to the Yondaime's impatient pacing there as well, the doctor had said he was, "disturbing the patient," and thus is where they were now.
Several people had shown having heard the news that the child was about to be born, several even stayed and waited in anticipation while others stayed for only a moment before rushing off to attend to some order of business or another. One person, however stayed, one person that Kakashi sincerely wished at that moment would just curl up and die. That one person was none other than Maito Gai, Kakashi's self entitled "eternal rival".
For what seemed the millionth time that day or even in just the pass four hours, Kakashi sighed, then explained to Gai that he did not want to challenge the other boy to another one of his ridiculous challenges. The other protested profusely until Kakashi agreed to play Janken with him.
Rin came out of the hospital ward and without saying a word or even glancing in their direction before she took off down the hallway presumably to find another medic. This whole thing tied Kakashi's stomach in knots, they had had no word on Akina's condition and none of the doctors had even stopped to tell the everything was fine.
Eventually Gai left and Kakashi was left with his sensei. Time passed, Kakashi was not sure how much though, he had stopped bothering looking at the clock. He figured there must be something wrong with it; it seemed to stand still as if everything had come to a stand still.
It was dark outside, the moon was full, he noticed glancing out the window. He could just barely make out the constellation that was known simply as the Kunai, very unoriginal, but it was useful all the same, as the star in the tip of the blade was always directly in the north.
Finally what seemed like an eternity a doctor came out wearing a grim expression, his eyes were serious, his hands were washed and clean. His clothes were stained with blood, and he appeared close to exhaustion. "I'm sorry…" he said, not quite meeting Arashi's eyes.
Arashi felt his voice catch in his throat and it felt as if someone were squeezing his chest. He resisted the sudden urge to cry as the doctor continued, "Akina, died…" here his voice trailed off into silence as both the Yondaime stared backin surprise . There was no way…she could not, not after...The Yondaime pushed passed the man and into the room, determined to prove that she was still alive.
Kakashi waited for his sensei who had run away into the room hoping to prove that his wife was alive. Then a thought hit him, "What of the child?" he asked the doctor who turned a sad expression to the boy.
"There were two, one boy and one girl, the boy is alive and kicking, and we are not quite sure what will become of the girl," the doctor's eyes were level, he knew from years of experience that you could not show weakness when working in a situation like this.
"Twins?" Kakashi asked quizzically, cocking his head to one side, no one would have guessed, Akina had had a big stomach, but twins. Kakashi's eyes darkened as he thought of the two children. "What happened?" was the next thing out of his mouth.
"The girl was born with a collapsed lung, and after she came, the bleeding would not stop, we tried everything, but nothing worked," the doctor's voice was again level, almost to the point of uncaring, as if this were no big deal and it was a matter of little concern.
His hands tightened into fists, Kakashi stood there as he fumed. Although he liked to believe that he had it all under control and was ready for anything that came his way, like a true shinobi would be, he was only fourteen, and human, and like all humans he too was prone to fits of anger. "Don't you care? Do you even care that a person has died and that a child, newly born is resting in the edge of life and death? Do you care that there are possibly two children who will grow up without knowing the love of a mother? Well, tell me you cold hearted BASTARD!" with that, Kakashi's fist collided with the man's jaw, sending him flying across the room.
"KAKASHI!" Rin stood down the hallway holding a wrapped up bundle in her arms that had begun to cry out in the sudden tension in the room, the sound broke Kakashi's heart and for the first time since his father had committed suicide, Kakashi felt close to crying, felt close to sitting in a corner to sob until the sounds of his own crying lulled him to sleep. But he knew he couldn't, he had to keep standing, keep running forward, and not letting anything getting in his way, just like a sword that cuts down its enemies.
"Is that one of them?" he asked Rin who stood there, trying to comfort the crying bundle; her eyes were brimming with tears that fell on the child's face.
"Yes, sensei just named him, his name is Uzumaki Naruto, the other was given a name, Uzumaki Haruka, but no one is sure is she will even live the night," holding the bundle, Rin hummed a lullaby that quieted the child, closing his eyes, Kakashi listened to the song, he let his anger fade. Rin had often sung that song to injured patients she had had to put out of their misery on the battle field, she had also hummed it when performing the surgery to transfer Obito's eye to him.
For a moment, the world fell away, for a moment, both teenagers were lost in memory, for only a moment, though, and then it was gone.
A loud crash brought them back into this world from their dreams, the whole building shook with some form of unearthly force. "Kakashi, Rin!" the Yondaime stood just inside the doorway, all signs of his grief were gone from his face as he masked them, the only thing you could tell what had just happened was the haunted look in his eyes.
Another shinobi jumped in from the window, one Kakashi knew by the name of Umino Naomi. "Hokage-sama," she said respectfully, "the Kyuubi has attacked the village."
The Kyuubi was silent as he killed the two shinobi standing guard; he was silent as he slipped into the village unseen, no one saw, no one knew he was here. Humans were so naïve, they really believed they could keep out a power as great as his. These smug thoughts, he kept to himself as he made his way through the streets, following the same feeling that had led him here in the first place.
A woman saw him and would have cried out if he had not silenced her. There was no real feeling in him as he killed her, just the thought that he was completing his task, that he would save his own race. But, he had to get there before it found its host, before the soul sealed inside the scroll was released.
Kane had returned to the small room that he had earlier been decoding the scroll in, he did not know what it was, but something had called him back to this room, he felt as if the scroll itself were calling him, like a prisoner cries out for release. And he had followed the call, only to find something had happened.
The writing on the scroll was glowing; the color of chakra, and Kane felt the other presence in the room, although he could not see it. "Who's there?" he asked the empty room, sincerely hoping there would not be an answer.
He was disappointed when a voice answered him, I am here, who are you? The voice was innocent like a child yet it held a note of irony as if it deemed Kane to be lower than itself.
"Seiko Kane," he said, voice still steady, trying to stop his hand from shaking, this was all just a dream, he told himself. Dreamt up by me. Or so he thought, until he felt the touch on his shoulder, colder than ice, colder than anything he had felt before.
Seiko Kane, the voice said with the same not of irony, the Kyuubi comes for me…Take me from here, hide me where no one will find me. Inside a child...The voice was still innocent, as if the notion of sacrificing a child to save itself was a game like tag.
"Who are you? Tell me! NOW!" Kane's voice rose, anger burning in every word, who dared break into his office? Taking a defensive stance, the man waited for the intruder to reveal themselves, no one did.
Stupid human… a person sat on the table that Kakashi and Rin had been working earlier. Blonde hair and blue eyes, like an angel, although this, Kane knew, was a demon or something even worse. Why don't you ever listen to your superiors? The figure reached out its hand to rest it on Kane's head as the man backed up against the wall. Now, find me a vessel.
Without another word, Kane rolled up the scroll, carefully so as not to destroy the writing. Then, carefully, he bounded away down the street, using the shadows as cover, he had to find an infant to become the being's vessel.
Author's Note: Okay, I made my deadline, barely. For those of you who have already read this, I hope you noticed the very slight changes in this chapter. For those of you reading this for the first time, I hope you liked it. I'm keeping the same pairing tally posted from the last time this was up. I will take any suggestions for pairings except yaoi or yuri. And a hint to anyone….(I love non canon pairings). Tally stands at; once I find the paper, I'll tell you. Until then, review please and stay safe.